19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 1 of 226
FRIDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 1999
____
PROCEEDINGS AT JOINT SITTING
____
Members of the National Assembly and the National Council
of Provinces assembled in the Chamber of the National
Assembly at 09:02.
The Speaker took the Chair and requested members to observe
a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
MILLENNIUM DEBATE
The SPEAKER: Order! This Joint Sitting is the last debate
for the year 1999. The presiding officers have called it
for the purpose of what we have called the Millennium
Debate. We welcome the President, who has agreed to join us
today, and it is now my privilege to call upon him to
address the Joint Sitting. [Applause.]
The PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC: Madam Speaker, presiding
officers of the national legislature, premiers, hon
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 2 of 226
members, we meet today on the premises of the National
Assembly to join in what has been described as the
Millennium Debate. This gives all of us the opportunity to
reflect on what the passing millennium and, more
immediately, the century that is progressing towards its
end have meant with regard to the evolution of human
society.
Perhaps more important than this, our debate provides us
with the possibility of indicating what the new century and
millennium should represent. The picture we would paint of
that future would also constitute our commitment to working
towards ensuring that we transform what may seem to be a
dream into a new reality. When we spoke at the United
Nations University in Tokyo, Japan last year, we quoted
from a tract written by Pliny the Roman during the first
century of this millennium, in which he sought to educate
his fellow Romans about the Africans of the day. Here is
what Pliny wrote:
Of the Ethiopians there are diverse forms and kinds of
men. Some there are toward the east that have neither
nose nor nostrils, but the face all full. Others have no
upper lip, they are without tongues, and they speak by
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 3 of 226
signs, and they have but a little hole to take their
breath at, by the which they drink with an oaten straw.
In a part of Africa be people called Pteomphane, for their
king they have a dog, at whose fancy they are governed.
And the people called Anthropomphagi, which we call
cannibals, live with human flesh. The Cinamolgi, their
heads almost like to heads of dogs.
Blemmy is a people so called, they have no heads, but have
their mouths and their eyes in their breasts.
We said then that these images must have frightened many a
Roman child to scurry to bed whenever their parents said:
``The Africans are coming! The strange creatures out of
Africa are coming!''
As we approach the end of the millennium, we can say with
absolute certainty that today's Romans have a more accurate
picture of what we Africans are. They know that we are not
the grotesque creatures born of the fertile imagination of
an eminent Roman scholar, nor are we the savages and
cannibals that were the offspring of that imaginative mind.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 4 of 226
I suppose we should be grateful that in the passing of a
thousand years we have so recovered our heads and our eyes
and our nostrils and our lips and our tongues, that we too
can claim to be as human as any who live on our common
globe.
The Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe, writes differently
and gloomily about the future of the very human Africans
who occupy our continent. He says:
Warriors will fight scribes for the control of your
institutions; wild bush will conquer your roads and
pathways; your land will yield less and less while your
offspring multiply; your houses will leak from the floods
and your soil will crack from the drought; your sons will
refuse to pick up the hoe and prefer to wander in the
wilds; you shall learn ways of cheating and you will
poison the cola nuts you serve your own friends. Yes,
things will fall apart.
Unlike Pliny, Chinua Achebe speaks directly about our
African experience. Far too often have the warriors fought
the scribes for the control of our institutions. It has
happened that throughout our continent we have allowed the
wild bush to conquer our roads and our pathways. Many of
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 5 of 226
our sons have refused to pick up the hoe, preferring to
wander in the wilds. Many among us have used our native and
acquired intelligence to learn ways of cheating. Enslaved
by the most selfish passions, many have poisoned the cola
nut they serve their own friends.
Through the long hours, as this century wore on, so did it
seem many a times that indeed things were falling apart. So
must it have seemed to one African generation after another
as they saw their ancient empires collapse and many hide in
fear in the forests, as the slave traders kidnapped
millions and transported them across the oceans. The gloom
would have deepened as countries were seized and attached
to foreign lands as colonies, owned by foreigners to be
occupied, governed and disposed of by these foreigners as
they saw fit.
In many instances the rejoicing at the regaining of
independence was shortlived, as the new rulers set about to
create the world which Chinua Achebe so vividly describes.
As we pondered the experience of the millennium, we knew
that no God had decreed that we should be the frightening
freaks whom Pliny imagined, nor that fate had predetermined
that things on a continent should fall apart. We knew,
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 6 of 226
instead, that there existed enough genius, pride, energy
and imagination amongst the peoples of Africa which would
enable us to undo the damage which the urban tide of events
over half a millennium has visited on our continent.
Confident that our efforts will be crowned with success, we
have said that the challenge rests with us to use all these
attributes to rebuild our country and continent.
Accordingly, we have made the call, which we repeat today,
that through our sustained efforts, we must define the new
century as an African century. Thus would we end the
tragedy according to which, as each century ended and hopes
were raised that the next would be better, the result
always seemed to be that we sank further into the abyss.
I am certain that all of us who are gathered here,
regardless of party affiliation, are of one mind that we
want to see an African continent freed from the processes
of which Chinua Achebe wrote. Ours must become a continent
of democracy, justice and respect for human rights. It must
become a continent of peace and stability, prosperity and a
decent rise in the standard of living for all its peoples.
It must be part of the world revolution in science and
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 7 of 226
technology and a beneficiary of the benefits that come in
its wake.
Africa must flower once again as a continent of learning,
art and thriving cultural activities, no longer sliding
towards a slow and painful death at the margins of an
advancing global community. Africa must regain her place as
an equal among the continents. This result will not come
about of its own accord. None sits somewhere in the world
who has the capacity to achieve this historic
transformation of our fortunes as Africans, except we the
Africans.
If what we have spoken of is nothing but a dream, there is
none but ourselves who will dare to dream as we must dream
of a future of the recovery of the dignity of the peoples
of Africa. Nothing can stop us from transforming this dream
into the actual rebirth of our continent, except the
collapse of our self-confidence. However hard and
protracted the struggle, we will emerge victorious, unless
we allow the cynicism of the defeated to overwhelm the
confident hope of those who have the courage to take their
destiny into their own hands.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 8 of 226
Success will not come unless we plan for it. The African
century will not be unless we help to mobilise the forces
that must engage and struggle so that the hopes of the
people for a century and millennium that bring something
new are realised. We would, therefore, urge that as a
people and a country, we should devote the year 2000 that
is upon us to doing everything that needs to be done to
ensure that by its end, we see our entire continent at the
ready to join in a powerful movement of the peoples of
Africa for the realisation of the African century.
Were we to adopt this historic decision, we would
consequently impose on ourselves critically important tasks
without whose achievement the renewal of our continent
would remain a pipedream. The first of these tasks must
surely be that, as Africans, we aim to ensure that by the
end of the year 2000 no part of our continent should be
victim to the destructive fury of war.
The OAU has already taken the important decision that it
will work to ensure that the year 2000 is Africa's year of
peace. We have no choice but to rise to this challenge
finally to bring to a close a period in our history which
has condemned many peoples on our continent to the cruelty
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 9 of 226
and indecency of military conflict. Similarly, the OAU has
already taken another important decision that, with effect
from the year 2000, it will no longer admit military
regimes into its ranks. Once again, to help to realise the
intention of this decision, we must join with others on our
continent to strive so that by the time the year ahead of
us comes to an end, power has been or is irrevocably being
returned to the people in all countries on our continent.
Throughout Africa, peoples and governments, including our
own, have understood that Chinua Achebe was correct when he
said that we shall learn ways of cheating and would poison
the cola nuts that we serve to our own friends. We have to
use the year 2000 further to help to strengthen the impetus
towards the containment and eradication of corruption on
our continent, aiming to have the understanding firmly
established in all our countries that none of us will allow
that corruption is accepted as a way of life.
Our work in this area will clearly require that we bring on
board the corporations and the governments of the developed
countries of the North, so that they lend their own
strength to the removal of a cancer which impacts
negatively both on their countries and ours. It goes
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 10 of 226
without saying that the elimination of poverty and human
deprivation in all its forms has to be a defining feature
of the African century.
Critical to the achievement of this objective is the
inculcation in all our minds of the understanding that all
of us - politicians, business people, workers, peasants and
professionals - have a common obligation to bring our
resources and our various strengths into the pursuit of the
common objective to achieve our own sustained socioeconomic
development. Certainly, we have to push back the
misconceptions that overseas development assistance on its
own will pull us out of the poverty trap or that our
governments dispose of unlimited resources on which we
should base the hopes of the peoples for a better life for
all.
We are arguing for the rediscovery and the redefinition of
the concept of a partnership based on self-reliance within
and among our countries as one of the major ideas that
should fuel the striving towards an African century.
Africa's political leadership has a critical role to play
in turning into a real motive force for change to the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 11 of 226
concepts with which we are all familiar of ``Masakhane''
and ``Faranani''.
Many of Africa's intellectuals, scientists and
professionals have been obliged, as Chinua Achebe wrote,
``to wander in the wilds''. Work is already going on to
prepare a directory of this extraordinary human resource
which lives and earns its livelihood outside of the African
continent. And yet we know that many among these are very
interested to use their knowledge to benefit the peoples of
our continent.
We must use this coming year to find ways and means by
which we help to position the African brain power, both
within and outside Africa, so that it is also drawn into
the project of the renewal of our continent. It is obvious
that we cannot successfully address the challenge of
socioeconomic development, of which we have been speaking,
outside of the context of the global economy. The very
process of globalisation requires that our own activities
should be informed by the objective to cover out the space
within this process so that it impacts on all our countries
and peoples in a way which helps to achieve the
developmental goals of which we have been speaking.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 12 of 226
We are strengthened by the fact that, amongst other things,
we can draw on the conclusions arrived at during the recent
Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, which in its
Fancourt Commonwealth Declaration on Globalisation and
People-Centred Development states:
Poverty and human deprivation constitute a deep and
fundamental flaw in the world economy ... the greatest
challenge facing us today is how to channel the forces of
globalisation for the elimination of poverty and the
empowerment of human beings to lead fulfilling lives.
The special task we face as a continent, which poses the
most urgent development challenge globally, is that we
should use the year 2000 ourselves to build a united
position with regard to what all humanity should in fact
do, to channel the forces of globalisation for the
elimination of poverty on our continent.
The urgency and importance of the matter which we are
addressing is illustrated by the fact of two major
international meetings that will take place in the
immediate future. These are the summit meeting of the
African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to be held in
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 13 of 226
Dominica and the WTO meeting that will take place in
Seattle in the United States. Both of these meetings are
confronted precisely by the question: What is to be done to
deal with the problems posed by what the Commonwealth
described as a deep and fundamental flaw in the world
economy?
Africa and the rest of the developing world require urgent
and correct answers to this question. The point however is
that it must be us, who are surrounded by poverty and human
deprivation, who must lead in the search for these answers.
This has to be one of the tasks which we set ourselves for
the year 2000. Obviously, this relates more generally to
the entire system of global, political and economic
governance which has to be reformed, amongst other things,
to address the issue of equity among the nations and
peoples of the world.
Once again we have no choice but to elaborate a common view
as to the nature and intent of that reform process, because
without this, much of what we would want to do, properly to
impact on the process of globalisation, would come to
naught. Everything we have said bears directly on our own
future as a country. Such prescriptions as might have been
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 14 of 226
made about our continent in general apply equally and in
particular to our country as well.
Equally, we must fully absorb this lesson that, as
demonstrated by the process of regionalisation across the
globe, we too will not achieve the success our people
desire unless the larger region of which we are an integral
part, the African continent, also succeeds. In addition to
this, we must also recognise the fact that the relatively
greater strength and capacity which we have, places an
obligation on us, in our own interest, to use these to
promote the common cause of Africa's sustained advance.
Our liberation came upon us as the century and the
millennium were winding down towards their close. Thus,
have we had the opportunity to build on all human
experience, to design our own project for the
reconstruction and development of our country. I hold
firmly to the conviction that, as a country, we are indeed
on course. We, too, are involved in the complex process of
undoing the damage which the ebb and tide of events over
many centuries visited on us.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 15 of 226
We have a duty to ourselves and the rest of the world,
which fought with us to end the system of apartheid, never
to waver from the struggle to create the kind of society
visualised in our Constitution, free of oppression, of
racism, of sexism, of poverty and human deprivation. It is
this which will also help to define us as a legitimate
activist for the realisation of the vision of an African
century.
It remains for all those among us and in our society in
general who have the capacity to transcend the limited
boundaries of immediate space and time, to contribute to
and embrace the generation of what might appear to be a
superhuman effort to give a new birth to a continent which
has sinned to be the permanent object of the curse of
despair. Surely none can hope to be as blessed as we all
are, that we should have the possibility and the
opportunity to do things which, if done well, would make a
real difference to the lives of billions of people whose
existence is defined by life without dignity, of dire
poverty, of rampant diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria
and HIV/Aids, and of violent crime.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 16 of 226
As we approach the end of a century and a millennium and
seek to write compositions different from those of Pliny
and Achebe, the question we must answer is: What shall we
do to achieve Africa's renaissance? It is my hope that this
millennium debate will help us to arrive at the correct
answers, which shall also constitute our commitment to act
in favour of Africa's rebirth. [Applause.]
The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call on the next speaker, I
would like to request all members please to check their
cellphones to make sure that they have been switched off.
The MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Madam Speaker, the
President, Deputy President, hon members, as we approach
the dawn of the new millennium we cannot help but reflect
on the events of the last millennium, if not just a few
centuries, and admire the titanic struggles waged by the
oppressed masses in the world in general and Africa in
particular against the scourge of slavery, colonialism,
imperialism, racism, apartheid and, eventually, against
resident dictators and tyrants. We salute all those
courageous fighters, heroes and heroines. We low our
banners for those who perished in those struggles.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 17 of 226
The world was ravaged by two world wars less than 30 years
apart in this millennium. Of course Africa, whilst busy
organising and reorganising its societies, was visited by
scores of explorers and so-called discoverers, and the
scramble for Africa had began. Africa was carved up amongst
colonial powers.
For a major commodity for export, Africa exported slaves.
But they soon realised that there was more to Africa than
slaves. They started plundering our wealth, from ivory to
uranium, oil to diamonds, gold to fruit and meat. Africa
resisted and at the turn of the century we saw the
emergence of liberation movements - the African National
Congress being among the oldest - which sought to unite our
people in struggle and emphasised what united us in a
struggle which increasingly encompassed the workers'
struggle. After the Second World War we saw the process of
decolonisation.
The sixties were Africa's great years of independence, and
amongst the political leaders a dream of a united Africa
was soon cherished. Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana said on
independence day:
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 18 of 226
Ghana's independence is meaningless, unless it is linked
up with that of the rest of Africa.
During that period there were scores of conferences on
independence and the freedom fighter, Dr Du Bois a PanAfricanist, held lots of Pan-Africanist conferences in
Paris, Manchester and London. They all talked about African
unity, but the question was: How and when? Dr Nkrumah said:
To suggest that the time is not yet ripe for considering
the political union of Africa is to evade realities in
Africa today.
Alas, today, as we wind up the millennium, Africa is still
not united. I make bold to suggest that the third
millennium must realise this cherished dream of African
unity. Of course to realise this cherished dream, a lot
needs to be done, because in the words of the President,
``indeed nothing is done until it is done''.
Patrice Lumumba, in leading the Congo to independence in
1960, declared: ``I dedicate the Congo Republic to the
liberation of all Africa.'' However, Congo today is still
tearing itself apart and we cannot call it a truly
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 19 of 226
liberated country. We have experienced just recently,
almost at the close of this millennium the most terrible
genocide in Rwanda. Sudan is still not at peace with
itself. Eritrea and Ethiopia are tearing each other apart.
Africa is like a human being, because if there is pain in
the foot, the whole of Africa feels the pain. That is why
everybody supported our struggle and that is why we should
work hard towards healing all parts of Africa. Of course
there are internal and external factors that have caused
Africa's ills. At the time of independence, Africa's
enemies watched the situation with glee and some of them
sneered that Africa would never be united, that that would
remain a dream. Indeed, we saw imperialism, neocolonial
forces and the Cold War, which ensured that Africa remained
divided, poor and dependent. Unfortunately, the weak and
greedy amongst our own allowed themselves to be used as
tools to divide and exploit Africa.
Conflict and violence are still a problem. Some of it is
based on economic and political inequalities. Maybe in the
new millennium the lesson should be that in building a
nation in a multilingual, multiethnic and multireligious
society we should make sure that rights and privileges are
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 20 of 226
not awarded on the basis of ethnicity and religion if we
are to avoid the tensions and conflicts that may arise.
It is clear, though, and encouraging, as the President has
said, that the African states have turned away from
dictatorships and military coups and have opted for
democracy, which literally means ``people's rule''. And, of
course, democracy has to suit the unique needs of each
country. Economic development has to translate into food in
the stomachs of the children and into the meeting of basic
needs for populations. It should not translate into the
creation of fat cats and leave the rest of the nations
poor.
Of course, Africa was carved up amongst the European
countries and one finds situations where cities which are
100 kilometres apart have no roads that connect them
because they were occupied or colonised by different
countries. Four decades ago even Haile Selassie, the
Emperor, was already talking about the linking of roads,
association of airlines, integration and expansion of
trade, commerce and communication services, and the
exchange of cultural and technical information. I would
suggest that the third millennium see the realisation of
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 21 of 226
all these and an Africa at peace with itself, healthy and
prospering.
In the multilateral world, South Africa has been playing a
very leading and meaningful role. We have played the
leading role in the disarmament campaign. We are now
chairing CHOGM and its review committee. Of course, it is
time for the United Nations, which has done sterling work
to prevent the Third World War, to be reformed. Indeed,
this requires all our effort. Whereas our past heroes would
have gladly participated in the struggles to unite Africa
and to see the rebirth of Africa, they gave up their lives
so that we could be free. The burden now falls on the
President. However, I am glad to say that he has a
dedicated team, both in this House - among all the parties
- and outside, as well as in the continent and the world.
However, this means that the President has to expend his
time and energy not only in South Africa, but with the rest
of the continent and the world, in order to realise his
very own dream of an African renaissance. [Time expired.]
[Applause.]
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 22 of 226
The LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Madam Speaker, Mr President,
Mr Deputy President, ``the world is in a rush and is
getting close to its end'', thus spoke Bishop Wulfstan in a
sermon given in York in England shortly after the last
millennium dawned in 1016. It is easy to imagine, nearly 1
000 years later, that similar sentiments of doom and
despair are felt throughout our world.
However, the advantage of today's debate at this time - six
weeks before the close of the 20th century - was
encapsulated by one of the titans of this or any age,
Churchill, who noted that the further back one looks, the
further forward one can see. This century opened with guns
firing over South Africa. Our own country seemed to be
sounding a grim warning for the last 100 years of this
millennium. And indeed the 20th century, while dazzling all
previous ages with its scientific brilliance, also brought
the darkest evil and the worst bloodshed in the history of
mankind.
Today there is great concern, understandably, about why
some nations are so poor and others so rich. If one looks
back over the second millennium, one can see the reasons
stark and clear. One can also see how the poor of the world
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 23 of 226
can also become prosperous. About 1 000 years ago, China
and some of the nations of the East were scientifically and
culturally advanced compared to Europe. But from then on
Europe began to advance until it outstripped them and
eventually became the dominant power in the world, in turn
surrendering more recently its dominance to America.
This makes one thing obvious: National success has nothing
to do with race. Chinese, Europeans, Arabs and Africans are
all equally able to build prosperous and advanced
countries. What determines their success is, among other
crucial decisions, the system of government they live
under, their tolerance of new ideas, and the flexibility or
openness of their societies.
Europe advanced because it embraced new ideas and allowed,
more than anywhere else on earth, inventors, dissenters and
heretics to have their say. John Wycliffe, in the 14th
century, broke the monopoly of knowledge by translating the
Bible into the language of the people; Martin Luther in the
16th century attacked the corrupt despotism of the then old
order Catholic Church; Nicolas Copernicus in the 16th
century and Galileo Galilei in the 17th century laid down
the principles of modern astronomy against the orthodoxy
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 24 of 226
which, at the time, prevailed against all comers and who
saw the earth as the centre of the universe; William
Wilberforce in the 19th century fought the evil system of
slavery.
All these men suffered the assaults of authority, but the
system was eventually sufficiently tolerant for their ideas
to be heard and then to spread. It is impossible to
exaggerate the importance of these contrary voices. If one
stifled them, one would have stifled progress, and the
reason why China, among others, fell behind Europe, was
because it did stifle them.
Within Europe itself, Spain and Portugal, once the richest
and most powerful parts of Europe, which led the great
explorations of the world, languished behind northern
Europe, over time, precisely because the ecclesiastical
authority there tried to control thought, to trammel
enterprise and to put contrary ideas to the Inquisition.
Europe, as it advanced, gave rise to terrible paradoxes,
especially in this extraordinary century that is now
ending. It was expected that scientific advance would go
hand-in-hand with humane civilisation. This did not always
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 25 of 226
happen. In the 16th and 17th centuries, in the age of
scientific discovery under Galileo, Leibniz, Descartes and
Newton, there was a reversion to the most savage
superstition in the form of witch-burning.
And let us pause to remember and reflect that Europe from
1300 to 1700, the United States of America in 1692, and
again, under McCarthyism in the 1950s, and even the
straitjackets of political correctness in our own country
and across the world in the 1990s, all have a binding
thread: to censor ideas, to chill discussion and to stifle
dissent.
General witch hunts in medieval England, and indeed in New
England by their very nature, were not then - and in
different form are not today - concerned with the truth.
The favourite means of detection of medieval witches was,
for example, by throwing a suspect bound hand and foot into
the river. If she floated, she was possessed of unnatural
powers and thus destined to be burnt at the stake. If she
drowned, she was innocent. Either way, she was dispatched
from this world which was the result intended in the first
place.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 26 of 226
But this evil, such as it was in its time, was eclipsed by
an enormously greater evils in this century. Towards the
end of the 19th century, there were many people who thought
that science had ended the problems of mankind and
humankind, and that there was now an unstoppable progress
towards enlightenment. The Boer War should have warned them
otherwise. The colonial conquest as well. But it did not.
In 1914 the most advanced nations in Europe fell upon each
other in the mad slaughter of the First World War, bloody
beyond the imaginings of Genghis Khan or Julius Caesar. In
the aftermath of this war, came the greatest calamities of
all. From the heart of European civilisation, there came
two superstitions more primitive than anything from the
Stone Age and more evil than anything before or since: the
twin superstitions of Marxism and Fascism.
In 1917, Russia, which had promised to be the greatest
power of the 20th century, was plunged into the darkness of
communism. Tens of millions of people perished under Lenin
and Stalin, and the hideous experiment was repeated in
other countries, leading to enslavement in Eastern Europe,
genocide in Cambodia, mass famine in Ethiopia and the
catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution in China.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 27 of 226
In Germany, the country of Beethoven, Bach and Einstein,
came Adolf Hitler and national socialism. Hitler was the
extreme incarnation of one of the greatest curses of the
20th century, the ideology of race. Under him,
institutionalised racism found its nadir. National
socialism led to the Second World War. It also led to the
worst crime in the history of the world.
In the second half of the century we seem to have
progressed. Western Europe, the USA, Japan and the Pacific
Rim have enjoyed unprecedented prosperity. Their life
expectancy is now greater than it has ever been. Communism
has collapsed and the countries which it kept under control
are advancing, albeit unevenly, towards democracy and
progress.
Africa, unfortunately, has been the less fortunate, and our
peoples have not enjoyed the benefits of economic and
scientific progress. They have suffered, not because they
are in any way inferior to any other people, but either
because of our bad history or because we have been illgoverned by bad leaders with foolish ideas and venal
ambitions.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 28 of 226
South Africa itself has cheered the continent and the world
by making the transition to democracy. So, what are the
lessons of the past 1 000 years? I think that history is
immensely complicated, but I also believe that the
fundamental lessons are actually quite simple. The first is
that nations advance only when they are open to new ideas
and when they tolerate dissent.
I cannot think of any nation which has suffered because it
allowed criticism and free speech, and no nation which
benefited from suppressing them. In South Africa, we are,
no doubt, to become prosperous, but it is essential that we
always allow free debates and that we always tolerate the
views of those who challenge the orthodoxy.
In the uncertainty and the tumult of the time in which we
live and the new world which we confront in the next
century, and indeed, in the next 1000 years, we should
remember, as a second lesson, the faith of our fathers and
forefathers. The ancient wisdom appropriately lies at the
core of the world's great religions - Christianity, Islam
and Judaism. Indeed, this third millennium is the
celebration of the 2 000th anniversary of the birth of
Christ, and it is worth asking: What endures?
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 29 of 226
Perhaps it is that the three great religions all valued and
still value the individual and regard each person as unique
and precious because he and she is created in the image of
God. What religion has taught us and what political
authority sometimes forgets is that because individuals
have intellects, appetites and pride, they are capable of
great disaster and also of great achievement. Isaiah Berlin
called this ``the crooked timbre of humanity''. Because of
our God-given imperfections, we should treat with great
scepticism, if not hostility, any political creed which
promises perfection, total equality of condition or outcome
or which tries to treat the individual as simply a unit or
member of some immutable or preordained group, tribe or
race.
The third lesson would seem to be that we must never become
complacent and never relax our vigilance against evil
ideologies. We must forget none of the follies and crimes
of mankind. We must always remember every innocent who was
burnt as a witch, every slave who died on the Atlantic
ocean, every peasant and dissident who was killed under
communism, and every Jew, Gypsy, Pole and homosexual who
was slaughtered by the Nazis and every person who suffered
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 30 of 226
under the crime of apartheid. We must be forever watchful
against the witch-finders and the Inquisitors.
For us, in South Africa, there is, perhaps a fourth lesson
to be learned about race. We, too, have had our evil
ideology. It was called apartheid and under it black people
suffered terribly. It had its roots both in fascism and
communism, and like them, used the power of the state to
suppress dissent and to try to control thought. At the
heart of apartheid was the notion that people could be
classified and controlled according to race. The lesson of
apartheid is clear. There must never be race classification
by the state again. There must never be racial
discrimination by the state again, and if and when it
happens, we must ring the alarm bells for all to hear.
Fifthly, perhaps there is a lesson as well that the
particular mark that has distinguished successful countries
over the centuries is their treatment of women. The better
women are treated, the more the nation advances. If one
looks at the nations of the world today, one will see that
those enjoying the greatest prosperity have the most rights
for women, and those with the greatest poverty have the
least. Women are the hidden key to the treasures of
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 31 of 226
civilisation, and humanity can only progress if women are
given rights, opportunities and equality in full measure.
Five hundred years ago the world was changed forever by the
first information revolution with the advent of the
printing press. This press spread new ideas with greater
speed and to a larger audience than could ever have been
imagined in ancient times. The results were stupendous, and
proved that the trade in ideas is infinitely more important
than the trade in commodities. We are now living through
the second information revolution, and we can no more
predict its results than Gutenberg could in the 15th
century. However, we do know that those people who are open
to new ideas will flourish, and those who are closed to
them will falter.
The human race entered the 20th century, it appears from
reading the books and reflecting on those times, with a
false optimism. We should be wise as we enter the 21st
century, but, provided we remember the dreadful lessons of
the past, we have every reason to hope. Science has given
us the potential to make every person on earth safe,
prosperous and healthy.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 32 of 226
However, as we enter the second information revolution, let
us at least travel in the right direction. The most
flexible and dynamic model is needed to take our people
properly into the future. The Industrial Revolution of the
past century herded people into gigantic social
institutions, big corporations, big unions and big
governments. For us today, this model, as another
politician observed, is as appropriate as the woolly
mammoth. For example, trying to extend state power through
regulating maximum working hours and minimum wages,
massively interfering in people's lives and zones of
privacy and extending monopolies over telecommunications is
following yesterday's country with the day before
yesterday's ideas and measures.
It is no wonder, then, that in the pursuit of excellence
throughout our own continent, new, vigorous and radical
ideas are being followed. That is why the water supply has
been privatised in Lagos, why private and public
partnerships in Angola are in place to try to eradicate the
scourge of polio and why, in our own country, we are
hopefully going to take the economic high road. What South
Africa needs to do, and what Africa's renaissance requires
for the third millennium, is to exploit the opportunities
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 33 of 226
of the new global economy with empowered individuals in
maximum conditions of freedom, flexibility and dignity.
We cannot pretend that for all the vast progress the world
has made in 1 000 years, its bounty has been equally
spread. In the Middle Ages Thomas Hobbes wrote of life that
was ``nasty, brutish and short''. If one is, today, ravaged
by disease, dying of Aids, or mired in illiteracy or
poverty, then the electronic economy and the great benefits
of globalisation will seem a distant and theoretical
abstraction, to say the least.
Thus Beveridge's giants of disease, want, ignorance,
squalor and idleness, which were meant to have been
eradicated by more or less the end of the Second World War,
have not disappeared. They have reappeared in modern,
different and awesome forms. However, our seventh lesson is
surely to remember that the greatest occurrences of
environmental catastrophe, human degradation and genocide
have occurred under imposed conditions of authoritarian
dictatorship.
Indeed, it is estimated that in our century 170 million
people have been killed by their own governments through
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 34 of 226
the application of massive, misapplied or misanthropic
policies of social engineering. Peace, order and democracy
will not of themselves bring shelter, health, food and
jobs. However, what this century and millennium have surely
proved beyond argument, appeal or doubt, especially here in
South Africa, is that untrammelled power, uncontrolled
governments and unfree economies have delivered the worst
of all worlds and extremes. Let our faith, whether it is
profound or sceptical, religious or secular, redeem the
words of Deuteronomy:
I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and
the curse, therefore choose life.
[Applause.]
The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Madam Speaker, hon Deputy
Speaker, hon Chairperson of the NCOP, Your Excellencies the
President and the Deputy President, hon premiers and hon
members, we have come a long way, but a much longer way
still remains to be travelled. The rite of passage from the
second to the third millennium is more than a symbolic
opportunity to pause and ponder our past achievements and
future challenges. As destiny wanted it, this otherwise
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 35 of 226
purely symbolic moment of transition is marked by
expectations and concerns of great and immediate tangible
significance.
Because of the Y2K problem, which can affect each and every
sector of our society which is supported by computerised
technology, the changing of the date from the old to the
new millennium will test our collective capacity to
anticipate problems and expeditiously react to those which
we could not address beforehand.
The year 2000 poses for all nations a challenge rich with
opportunities and possible concerns. Almost by virtue of
destiny, we have come to realise because of the Y2K problem
how the future of development and prosperity of the whole
of mankind depends on this continuing mastering of the
science and technology now shaping the rapidly globalising
world in which we live. This consideration gives us a
valuable perspective on the significance of the dawning
millennium. South Africa has done substantive work to
secure its Y2K compliance and we are ahead of many other
nations with greater development than ours. Nevertheless,
we are bound to experience problems which I trust we will,
collectively, overcome.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 36 of 226
In anticipation of this fateful moment of transition, it is
fitting for us to consider how much our generation has
achieved for the people of South Africa, and how much more
needs to be secured before we can achieve genuine freedom
and prosperity for all. Behind us lies the memory of a long
path of suffering, struggle, endurance and heroism. Before
us lies a sea of unfulfilled needs and expectations
intertwined with hope and despair. Ahead of us lies an
uphill path towards prosperity, marking an arduous journey
upon which South Africa has not yet embarked.
I have often expressed a dream that one day the whole of
South Africa may enjoy the levels of prosperity, education
and confidence which were once enjoyed exclusively by our
white minority. In saying so I am dramatically aware that
if we wish to remain on a par with world development in the
global village, we will, for that day to come, not only
have to provide for all what was once provided for a few,
but also have to ride the rapidly growing wave of
technological development ahead of other nations of the
world. We cannot dream of providing in 20 years' time to
all our citizens that which a few enjoyed 10 years ago. We
must dream to provide for all the best of what will be
available in 20 years' time.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 37 of 226
I believe that we face this challenge in one way and one
way only. We must find our own path as Africans to reach
our final point of destination, bypassing some of the
intermediary stages which other countries had to undertake
over decades, if not centuries, to achieve their present
level of development and prosperity. We must leapfrog.
[Laughter.] If I were to put forward a slogan to mark how
South Africa should deal with its future as we move towards
the new millennium, I would urge all of us to bond
together, to leapfrog ahead. We must leapfrog over the
intermediary industrial stage of development to join the
technological age.
We must take cognisance of the fact that the conditions in
our country have already become unsuitable for securing
sustainable and widespread economic success exclusively
through industrialisation. Our labour costs are already not
sufficiently competitive with the labour opportunities
available worldwide. Our pool of trained and qualified
human resources is very low and inadequate to sustain
industrial development.
These considerations may lead to the conclusion that we
should not only place policy emphasis on the training of
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 38 of 226
skilled mechanics, but that we should rather focus on
training experts who can ride the crest of the present wave
of information technology, and the crest of the second wave
of the technological revolution which one can expect to
come from the imminent explosion of the new biotechnology.
We must anticipate the technology and plan the necessary
short cut to meet technology on its path of development 10
or 20 years down the road. We must accept the discipline
and necessary sacrifices to move fast enough towards our
rendezvous with destiny.
Other countries before us dared the unthinkable and
succeeded, merely by virtue of their commitment to social
discipline and long-term investment in technological
developments. I have always been impressed by how in a few
decades a relatively few Chinese, stranded on the small
island of Taiwan with no natural resources and then no pool
of human resources, succeeded in achieving prosperity
through long-term technological investments.
Today we live in a world in which computers and the
Internet have become more suitable trainers of people than
people themselves. Internet technology enables a world-
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 39 of 226
class surgeon in New York to perform a delicate surgical
operation in the most remote rural areas of Africa. Today
computer technology can take children from one of our most
remote rural areas into a world of information and
knowledge, which can almost instantaneously bring their
human development up to par with that of their peers in the
most developed countries of the world.
Our children are offered the opportunity of leapfrogging
from their parent's conditions into the future of
globalisation. By virtue of inexpensive and easy
technology, even the most remote rural areas can be linked
to a global village which is creating a global conscience
based on a multinational language.
The freedom of individual choices will be enhanced beyond
any present conception, and so will the very notions of
democracy, individual liberty and transparency. New
frontiers for democracy will open, which will virtually
enable the governed to be the governors and individuals to
be kings in their area of liberty and collective decisionmaking, to reflect the consumer's or voter's will in every
situation.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 40 of 226
Against this scenario of globalisation, it is essential
that we move our efforts forward as Africans. I remain
convinced that our traditional African values hold
sufficient wisdom and spiritual strength to be able not
only to accompany, but indeed direct the path of change and
guide us into the third millennium. African renaissance
should be about having faith in the value and strength of
what we know, what is ours and in our quintessence as
Africans, so that we enter the undiscovered land of our
known future.
We cannot plan the outcome, but only the direction of this
journey. I believe that as Africans, we can indeed build
within our country a technologically advanced and socially
just and equitable society which can entrench, within the
global village, the significant contribution of Africa. The
African renaissance should enable our country not to be a
guest in the global village, but, indeed to be one of its
citizens. I believe that we should concentrate on a few
challenges and direct our efforts and resources towards
them.
If we face the range of priorities adopted by our
Government, it is obvious that we do not have the necessary
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 41 of 226
resources or the administrative capacity to fulfil them all
equally and satisfactorily. Decisions among equally
deserving priorities are painful but necessary. Only a
long-term perspective which clearly identifies the South
Africa of 30 or 50 years down the road can give us the
necessary justification and strength to neglect the present
priorities and concentrate on the building blocks of our
future.
We must win the battle against the HIV/Aids epidemic. We
must establish conditions not only of law and order, but
indeed of social discipline throughout the country. It is
not sufficient that the law must be respected. We need to
promote a comprehensive awareness that our nation must act
in unity to pull all available strengths together towards
the realisation of long-term plans.
We need discipline in our schools to improve learning, and
discipline in our workplaces to improve productivity. We
need discipline in our families to promote values, and
discipline in our communities to enhance social solidarity
and mutual assistance. We need discipline in Government to
cut down on spending and increase delivery. I see I get 10
out of 10 from the Minister of Finance! [Laughter.] We need
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 42 of 226
the discipline to accept long-term sacrifices. However, we
cannot state with equal certainty that prosperity for all
will ever bless our country, unless we put all our efforts
into attaining this goal.
In our march for freedom, our success was not necessarily
determined by the pace of our progress, for colonialism and
apartheid were doomed anyway. We knew that we would prevail
sooner or later. However, our march towards prosperity will
only lead to our rendezvous with destiny if we move at the
required speed. We can only prevail sooner and not later.
If we do not move fast enough, and with sufficient courage
and determination, no matter how good our intentions, we
will not achieve success over poverty, ignorance and lack
of development.
The world is becoming increasingly more polarised between
rich and poor, technologically aware and technologically
ignorant. The world does not owe us our success. The
challenge posed to South Africa at the dawn of the new
millennium is that of accomplishing our success. It is
through our willingness to march ahead, fast on the path of
progress, carrying with us the values and the features of
our African tradition, that we shall be able to give
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 43 of 226
substance or credence to the notion of an African
renaissance.
Finally, I say: Let the new millennium, when it dawns, be
the millennium in which we shall come face to face with our
tryst with destiny. Let the new millennium be a millennium
in which Africa will come into her own and in which begging
bowls, which our President mentioned recently, will be a
thing of the past.
Before us, as people of Africa, I see a big hurdle as the
new millennium looms. Can we get over it in the coming
millennium? I believe that, with determination and unity of
purpose, we can. Indeed I do believe that, as the song
goes, we shall overcome, some day. [Applause.]
The PREMIER OF GAUTENG (Mr M S Shilowa): Madam Speaker, hon
President of the Republic, hon Deputy President,
Chairperson of the NCOP, hon members, there is a saying
that goes: Allow those who want to bark to do so, but let
those who want progress to continue to roll on like a
wagon: steadily, but surely, and on course.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 44 of 226
The sun of our new democracy continues to rise as more than
10 billion eyes prepare to point their gaze towards the
distant horizon, where the sunset will give birth to a new
millennium. The advent of this new millennium abounds with
anxiety. Many people have so many questions about what the
next millennium holds in store for them. Some even think
that the coming millennium will herald the beginning of the
end of the world, while others believe that the world will
be plunged into darkness.
As public representatives of the people of South Africa we
must correctly identify the hopes, expectations and
aspirations of our people. This will allow us to take
advantage of the possibilities the next millennium brings
and turn these hopes and expectations into reality. Despite
the scientific, technological and philosophical advances
made during this millennium, the benefits thereof have
remained but a dream for the majority in our country and in
the developing world.
As we remember the gains of freedom in many countries
during the current millennium, we must be alive for the
fact that the nightmare of children who die of hunger and
diseases for which there are cures is the only reality
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 45 of 226
known to most members of the human race, who watch
helplessly and wistfully as the minority continues to reap
a rich harvest, sometimes at their expense.
For many who live under conditions of abject poverty, the
advent of the new millennium means an end to poverty and
the beginning of a better life. For many of our people who
suffer from epidemic diseases, the advent of the next
millennium brings hope that a cure will be found for their
ailment. For those of our people who are without jobs and
therefore have no source of income, it brings hope that
they will find jobs and work. For the many who live under
constant fear of crime and insecurity, it brings hope that
they will live in safer and secure communities. For many of
our youth who face an uncertain future, it will open many
opportunities for them to acquire the necessary knowledge
and skill they require to become worthier citizens of their
country and the world. For people with living disabilities,
it brings hope that things will change for the better.
For many women and children who are subjected to abuse by
those who do not recognise their human dignity, the advent
of the new millennium brings hope that their rights and
dignity will be respected. For many who live in squalor, it
brings hope that this will change and that they too will,
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 46 of 226
like others, live in decent conditions. For many of our
people who do not benefit from modern technology such as
information technology, it brings hope of the possibility
to benefit from such a technology. Indeed, every single
South African has high hopes that the advent of the next
millennium brings many possibilities to change things for
the better.
One of the biggest questions being asked everywhere in the
world is whether the modern technology which almost
everyone depends on today will function at the beginning of
the year 2000. Government and private companies have spent
millions of rands to ensure that their technology is Y2K
compliant. While we have done everything to ensure that the
electronic gadgets we use are Y2K compliant, this will not
be enough if we do not make all South Africans Y2K
compliant. How do we make all South Africans Y2K compliant,
one may ask? The answer, I think, lies in turning their
hopes in the millennium into reality.
The challenge facing all of humankind, as we enter this new
epoch, is that of dealing decisively and effectively with
the widening gap between the rich and poor. Our ability to
breath life into the noble idea of human solidarity depends
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 47 of 226
solely on our capacity to define globalisation in terms
broader than the pursuit of profits and wealth for a
minority of individuals in developed countries. In his
book, Economic Globalisation and Fiscal Policy, Irak
Aberdeen, quoting the human development report of 1996,
paints a bleak picture that shows:
Over the past 30 years the global growth in income has been
spread very unevenly. Between 1960-91, the share of the
richest 20% rose from 70% of global income to 85%, while
that of the poorest declined from 2,3% to 1,4%
This coincides with what Aberdeen and Biggs meant when they
said:
A sophisticated, globalised, increasingly affluent world
coexists with a marginalised global underclass.
This is an indictment against all of us, as we commit
ourselves to human development. Human development amounts,
among other things, to increased access to knowledge and
informal communication technologies.
These are the ploughs, rakes and tillers of the new
millennium which people need in order to empower themselves
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 48 of 226
as they prepare for the next millennium. Because
communication technologies are going to drive the expansion
of the world economy, we must fight to reverse the current
levels of access. It is estimated that 700 million people
will have access to information and communication
technologies in the year 2001 and almost all of them will
be from the advanced economies. A genuine reversal of this
disturbing trend will, however, result only from our
ability to produce forms of knowledge that will place us
firmly as producers of technology instead of as consumers
dependent on the technological products of other economies.
We can only meet this challenge if we succeed in the
project of making this coming century an African one. At
the same time, we must be aware that noting the impositions
of a number of harsh realities on Africa and the entire
Third World is not sufficient in itself. We can only set
the agenda for development if we are able to deal on our
own with our internal problems. Our internal endeavours to
ensure equitable wealth distribution patterns must find
expression in many of our policy positions and programmes.
These problems notwithstanding, the green valley of hope
and global prosperity beckons on the horizon. There is
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 49 of 226
reason for humanity to hope for a better existence.
However, it is our practical actions, not the noble words
contained in eloquent speeches, that will make us turn the
hopes of our people into reality, a reality of peace,
freedom, economic development and economic justice.
Let us respond positively to the plaintive cry of the
poorest of the poor, who are looking forward to the dawn of
the new millennium in the hope that the joy and
celebrations at the stroke of the last midnight will
rekindle the spirit of human solidarity. In this way, those
who are sceptical about the ability of the new orthodoxy of
globalisation to deliver a better life for billions of
people around the world will not rush into repudiating the
ideas of those who argue that an open world is the best
hope, even with flaws, for a better life for billions of
people. [Applause.]
Mr M C J VAN SCHALKWYK: Madam Speaker, the new millennium
will see legislators and leaders being faced with issues
which pose serious moral and ethical dilemmas. We know,
with our limited experience, how difficult it is to
legislate on issues such as abortion, euthanasia,
artificial insemination and prostitution. However, many of
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 50 of 226
these issues pale in comparison with what lawmakers will be
confronted with in the future: genetic engineering,
selecting genetically modified foods in our grocery stores,
addressing malnutrition amongst children in ways never
known before, and the cloning of human beings and other
life forms.
These new realities open up the unthinkable: designing
one's own children and, as some futurists already predict,
so-called ``baby shopping'', and this is not far-fetched.
The human genome project in the United States of America is
attempting to analyse the biochemical processes that result
in life. They are experimenting with producing the world's
first artificial living organism. Within a decade or two
the concept of cloning human beings and the possibility of
designer babies may become realities.
The process of gene therapy may enable parents to choose
certain attributes that they would want their children to
have, for instance, their IQ, how tall they should be and
even their personality type. The implications that this
will have for the human race are staggering. However, the
question that we are confronted with is: How does one
legislate for these new possibilities which are fast
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 51 of 226
becoming realities? Legislators will have to be at the
forefront of this debate.
A vital question in this regard is what the politician of
the future will be like. Will politicians become more and
more technocratic, as in some industrialised countries
where the dominant factor in decision-making becomes
lobbying by interest groups, or will the convictions and
the values of politicians be more important factors on
which citizens elect their leaders, knowing that they are
going to take decisions on issues with huge moral and
ethical implications?
New technological developments will also change the way in
which we practice democracy. In Europe and the US a new
concept of digital democracy has been coined to describe
what is starting to happen there. Some futurists have put
on the agenda the possibility of a ``virtual congress'' or
``virtual parliament'' where members of congress or
parliament are not required to be physically present. Maybe
this is the answer to those who would like to move
Parliament to Pretoria ... [Laughter] ... or maybe this may
make our question-and-answer time in Parliament, on
Wednesday afternoons, more relevant.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 52 of 226
The Zapatista rebels in Mexico launched the concept of
``virtual sit-ins'' in government departments. They created
a so-called, ``Electronic Disturbance Centre'' and instead
of physical sit-ins, they organised on-line protestors to
invade government websites with up to 600 000 hits a
minute, grinding them to a halt.
In Amsterdam, 120 000 Internet users have formed what is
referred to as a ``digital city''. In this virtual city
they interact and discuss key political issues with
government Ministers. It has taken the accessibility of
government, as well as their responsiveness, to
unprecedented levels. This is leading to a greater
transparency and greater accountability.
The future of the state, as we know the state today, is
also under discussion. Some people predict the complete
demise of the nation state as we have come to know it. I
think that that is a little bit too far-fetched, but one
will see a dramatically changed role for government and
also political parties in the next millennium.
Two new levels, where the interests of citizens are dealt
with, are already developing. The one level is a level
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 53 of 226
above state - the EU, WTO and SADC. The other level is a
subnational level where more powerful local and regional
structures, governmental as well as nongovernmental, are
developing. This manifests in a trend best illustrated by
what is presently happening in Europe. Whilst at an abovestate level there is integration, at sub-national level
there is increasing decentralisation of decision-making,
recognition of cultural and language rights, and
participation by civic interest groups.
This trend, against the background of globalisation, will
undoubtedly change the nature of national governments as we
know them today. But those who predict the disappearance of
the nation state and argue that national governments may
disappear, may be surprised to find the following. Parties
like ourselves and even the new social democrats are
advocating leaner government and smaller bureaucracy,
notwithstanding the socialist international.
In industrialised countries the government's share of the
economy is actually increasing and stabilising at high
levels. State spending on education, health, housing and
welfare, and by implication taxes, have increased over the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 54 of 226
past 50 years, even during the period of rapid
globalisation over the past two decades.
At the previous turn of the century, the governments in
today's industrialised countries - the US and many Western
European countries - accounted for less than 10% of the
national income in their countries. But in 1996 the
government's share of national income in these countries
was nearly 50%. During the rapid globalisation in the 80s
and the 90s, government spending as a percentage of GDP
increased, even in countries such as the USA and Japan.
In Britain a revealing study has now found that the
wealthiest 20% of the population receives 40% more
government spending on health care than the poorest 20%.
This was underlined, when yesterday or on Wednesday in a
question to the Minister of Finance, I raised the issue
here of the top 10% of black South Africans becoming more
affluent by 17% over the past five years, but the poorest
40% of black South Africans became poorer by 21%. This is
not unique to our country. It is happening all over the
world now.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 55 of 226
This is a problem that we must apply our minds to. If
blanket social spending, with a focus on relative poverty,
contributes to the poor just getting poorer, we must ask
ourselves if we should not shift the focus to the
alleviation of absolute poverty, with targeted social
spending, instead of the present blanket approach. It is a
valid question to ask where social spending ends up if it
is not the poorest of the poor who get it. A careful
analysis might well show that an extraordinarily high
percentage of social spending in our country is eaten up by
salaries and other overhead costs, with only a few drops
reaching the really thirsty. We should also ask ourselves
how many cents out of each rand actually reach the poor.
The environment does not exist as a sphere isolated from
human actions and needs. It is where we all live.
Environmental policy is all about survival. It is something
that we must pursue constantly. Preserving the environment
is a prerequisite for food security, particularly on our
continent.
In the next millennium we will have to make a renewed
commitment to preserving and protecting the environment. We
believe it can be done more effectively and wisely. South
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 56 of 226
Africans want a safer, cleaner and healthier environment.
Elements of a sustainable environmental policy include
rehabilitation, the principle of the polluter must pay,
improved environmental awareness, a sensible and considered
energy policy, and the promotion of a global environmental
partnership.
Debates such as this one allow us as lawmakers to look into
the millennium and assist us in focusing our minds. When we
return in 2000 - those of us who survive Y2K - we will
still have to deal with the immediate hard realities of
bringing crime under control, alleviating poverty,
providing affordable and accessible health care, and
quality education for our children. The New NP looks
forward to constructively participating in finding
solutions to these problems.
When I was coming up to the podium my colleague Mr Sakkie
Pretorius said that it was exactly 136 years ago today that
Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg address: Government by the
people for the people. I think this is a symbolic day on
which to have a debate such as this. [Applause.]
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 57 of 226
Mr P J GOMOMO: Madam Chair, why is 1 January 2000 different
from any other day of the year? The sun will rise in the
east and set in the west. The sea will not rise, nor will
the heavens fall. It will be a day made different only by
the way that some people have counted the days, and yet we
can make this a special day. It is a day on which to
harness our energy to focus our ideas and commitment on
building a better world. But have we got anywhere when our
planet is still marred by war and prejudice, and hunger
still prevails as our population grows daily?
It is chilling when we reflect that poverty has grown even
in the last century and that the divide between rich and
poor people and nations grows daily. What strikes us most
at the turn of this millennium is the gap between our
advances in science and technology on the one hand, and
increasing poverty on the other. The challenge and
opportunity that this artificial event, the new millennium
gives us, is to focus our energy and commitment on reducing
the gap between rich and poor, a gap that threatens to
plunge the world into conflict on a scale that it has never
known before. It is time for us all, in the global village,
to work towards narrowing the gap between the rich and the
poor - nations and individuals alike.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 58 of 226
The challenges that face our country are the challenges
that face the whole world. The rich nations of the world
cannot continue to protect their own interests at the
expense of the poor nations. We have to find a way of
balancing the social deficit against the Budget deficit,
always remembering to put people first.
Globalisation is placing new pressures on the poor, as
capital follows the most oppressive labour markets. But
globalisation is with us, and the challenge is to engage it
strategically - to engage the rich and the powerful with an
eye on an outcome that is the best possible solution for
all.
We in South Africa have surely learned lessons about the
fruits of dialogue and negotiations, and we became
victorious in the end. It is this experience of a dialogue
and reconciliation that we must take into the international
economic arena. But the developing world will not take its
rightful place in the council of nations, until it has been
able to make strides in the eradication of poverty, disease
and illiteracy.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 59 of 226
We are facing massive challenges in the fight against
epidemic diseases. Despite massive technological advances,
we are seeing the re-emergence of uncontrollable diseases.
Indiscriminate use of antibiotics and poor compliance has
led to huge problems of drug resistance. The medical
profession, and society in general, will need to develop a
far more open mind about fighting diseases, finding
solutions outside the First World approach. We have to
develop health and a deeper understanding of preventative
medicine.
If the 20th century has one defining characteristics, it
has been the expansion of technology. It is an expansion
that has wreaked havoc on our environment. Like all
challenges, sustaining the natural environment and
enhancing it will not be solved by piecemeal attempts.
Global problems require global solutions. Only if the rich
nations accept that the problems belong to all, can we
begin to find and to implement solutions.
In 1994, the ANC launched the Reconstruction and
Development Programme. The framework of this policy still
applies to our efforts to build a democratic, nonracial,
nonsexist future. The six basic principles of integration,
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 60 of 226
being based on the people, giving peace and security for
all, building the nation, linking reconstruction with
development, and deepening democracy can serve as our
beacon for the future. These principles apply not only
within our borders, but also beyond, in building a new
world democratic order. Not only South Africa, but the
entire planet, needs an integrated approach, and balancing
long-term gains against short-term costs.
If we, in our lifetime, can conquer illiteracy, and we can
make the wealthy nations and individuals recognise their
obligation to give support to those who have little, we
will be building a solid foundation for the next 1 000
years. [Applause.]
Mr B H HOLOMISA: NCOP Chairperson, President, hon premiers
and hon members, I wish to thank President Mbeki for
calling this important debate today. In the same vein, I am
immensely thankful to those who elected us to be part of
this important debate. I also wish to take this opportunity
to thank my colleagues for their contribution and
performance in our Parliament.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 61 of 226
I take this opportunity to commend also my colleague Roelf
Meyer for his success in brokering peace between the
warring factions in Northern Ireland. [Laughter.] This is
testimony to his grasp of complex political issues, to the
sharpening of his negotiation skills, and indeed, to his
participation in global politics. [Interjections.]
We must contextualise this debate in terms of the
challenges facing South Africa and the historical
inequalities in our country. We choose to approach this
unknown millennium debate on the basis of who we really are
and what our present problems are, and not as sangomas. We
are fortunate, as South Africans, as we enter the new
millennium with our conflict over democracy resolved. We
must be proud and pay our sincere respects to the veterans
of our struggle who today are in this House and who,
together with our fallen heroes, will continue to be an
eternal fountain of inspiration and resolve to be free in
our beautiful country.
It is conceded that we are part of the global village, and
we cannot extricate ourselves from it. It is, however, also
clear that there are serious inequalities in the world
economic order. The gap between the nations that have and
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 62 of 226
those that have historically been denied their rightful
share of the wealth and a dignified station in life, is
ever widening, because of the perpetration of economic
policies that entrench the historical status quo of rich
nations, lording it over poor nations.
We, in the underdeveloped world, do not have economic
sovereignty. We have no control over our resources. We
speak of the need to privatise state and parastatal
enterprises in South Africa as a way of stimulating
economic growth. In reality, this strategy and the muchvaunted Gear have not triggered job creation so far. The
economy of this country is still facing a gloomy future.
We need to look at strategies that will create economic
capacity among our poor people, and make them meaningful
players in the economy of their country. Our economy has
traditionally been based on a migrant labour force, which
today is not suited to technological challenges. The
development of technological skills based on our labour
market demands that we invest in our children through
mathematics and science programmes. Developing nations need
to gang up and flex their collective muscle to extract the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 63 of 226
best advantage for themselves when bargaining with the
developed nations of the North.
Since its transition to democracy, South Africa has been
undergoing a path-breaking struggle to achieve structural
reforms. Evidently, academic economic analysis and debate
need to move on to the development of a detailed and farreaching policy agenda, capable of tackling the inherent
disabilities of apartheid and radical enough to turn around
the South African economy and our society. The challenge
for South Africa is to develop an economic strategy that
would enable the country to meet and overcome domestic
demands and deficits, while enabling it to compete
internationally wherever appropriate and strategic, serving
both development and our democracy.
I have in the past stressed the importance of investing in
environmental education to enhance the quality of life of
our future generations. As we close this millennium, let us
set our sights on this target, and vigorously pursue the
campaign of building environmental awareness among the
youth, who must pass it on to their successors as part of
the national heritage. Let us create advocates and
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 64 of 226
champions of the environment today and assure our survival
and that of future generations.
Government has a responsibility to empower the previously
disadvantaged people of South Africa. Privatisation
packages need to be unpacked to reveal who is being
empowered through the acquisition of state enterprises that
are being privatised. What structural arrangements are made
in these deals to ensure that the acquired enterprises are
viable, contribute meaningfully to economic growth and job
creation and benefit the disadvantaged masses? We can no
longer afford the policy of rewarding favoured colleagues
by means of hand-outs and allocation of businesses which
they seem to be unable professionally to sustain and make
viable business concerns of.
In conclusion, I wish to thank the President for calling on
us this day to debate this important issue. However, we
submit that the time has come to take stock under his
Government and leadership of structures that were put in
place in 1994, and see how best we can reform and clean
them up effectively. [Time expired.][Applause.]
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 65 of 226
The PREMIER OF THE WESTERN CAPE (Mr G N Morkel):
Chairperson, Mr President, hon premiers and hon members,
the Western Cape provincial government, as a major
shareholder in South Africa's successes, failures and
problems, takes credit for some of the successes. We will
help to overcome our failures, and see ourselves as part of
the solution to our problems.
It is an inescapable fact that we will be transferring our
problems into the new millennium. It is also an inescapable
fact that we will have to solve these problems or face the
reality of total collapse if solutions are not found. The
major challenges facing all of us in the new millennium are
poverty, Aids, economic inequality, unemployment, crime and
urbanisation. These challenges - I have not listed them in
order of priority - are obviously interlinked and cannot be
tackled in isolation.
We in the Western Cape cabinet have identified nine policy
objectives, and I would like to list them. Firstly, a safe
environment for all our people. Secondly, the creation of
an enabling environment for economic growth. Thirdly, to
prepare the people of this province for the knowledge and
economy of the 21st century. Fourthly, to contain the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 66 of 226
spread of HIV/Aids and TB. Fifthly, to empower the poor
people of our province through the provision of basic
services. Sixthly, to improve the quality and accessibility
of services provided by the provincial government.
Seventhly, to protect, enhance and promote the total
environment for the optimum development of our people.
Eigthly, to maintain and improve the physical
infrastructure required for the development of our
province. Ninthly, to bind our province, as the gateway to
Africa, evermore strongly to our country and to the
continent of Africa.
The first thing that the President will notice is that all
these objectives address the challenges I have just
identified. They are also objectives that, we believe, fit
in very well with his own policy objectives for his term of
office.
As ons byvoorbeeld kyk na die beleidsdoelwit om die
verspreiding van HIV/Vigs en tering te beheer, dan is ons
in hierdie provinsie, en ek is seker ons is nie alleen wat
dit betref nie, volkome bewus van die katastrofale effek
wat hierdie dodelike siekte op provinsiale gesondheidsorg
kan hê. Dit is juis vanweë die omvang van hierdie
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 67 of 226
bedreiging dat ons nie kan bekostig om op die kantlyn van
die speelveld te staan en te argumenteer oor die
doeltreffendheid al dan nie of die bekostigbaarheid van AZT
nie. Ons behoort te konsentreer op gesamentlike pogings om
die oplossing te vind. Ek dink dit is juis waar ons krag
lê, naamlik om gesamentlike pogings te vind. Dit is waaroor
samewerking in regering gaan.
Ek is bly om te kan sê dat die Wes-Kaapse Uitvoerende Raad
uitstekende samewerking het met die nasionale Regering.
[Tussenwerpsels.] Dit is jammer - soos die Huis kan hoor
van daar agter - dat ons nie dieselfde samewerking kry van
die ANC in die Wes-Kaap nie. [Tussenwerpsels.] (Translation
of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[If, for example, we examine the policy objective to
control the spread of HIV/Aids and tuberculosis, then we in
this province, and I am sure we are not alone in this, are
fully aware of the catastrophic effect which this deadly
disease can have on provincial health care. It is, in fact,
because of the magnitude of this threat that we cannot
afford to stand on the sidelines arguing about the
effectiveness or otherwise or the affordability of AZT. We
should concentrate on joint efforts to find a solution. I
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 68 of 226
think this is where our strength lies, namely to make a
joint effort. This is what co-operative governance is
about.
I am happy to say that the Western Cape Executive Council
is co-operating very well with the national Government.
[Interjections.] It is a pity - as the House can hear from
the back there - that we are not getting the same cooperation from the ANC in the Western Cape.
[Interjections.]]
Our objective of ensuring a safer environment for the
inhabitants of our province is of mutual concern to all of
us. [Interjections.] We are grateful - that woke up that
hon member, did it not? - for the efforts that have been
made to improve policing in our province. We are concerned,
though, that there appears to be a problem with our
criminal courts. It is a challenge which needs serious
attention.
Another one of our objectives is to prepare the Western
Cape for the knowledge economy of the new millennium. A
society ill-prepared for a knowledge economy will continue
to fall behind as other areas of the world eradicate
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 69 of 226
poverty and grow steadily richer. [Interjections.] This
will be one of our major challenges, and one of that
Minister's, after having made that interjection.
Just how big that challenge is is borne out by some
disturbing facts. One in every five, or more than 650 000,
people in our province live in poverty. Infant mortality,
life expectancy and illiteracy, while impressive compared
to those of South Africa's other provinces, are poor
compared to our international peers in the same economic
bracket. Average incomes in the Western Cape are less than
one fifth of average incomes in advanced nations. Rural
communities lag behind urban communities in terms of
income, health and education. Many communities have limited
access to water, sanitation and housing. It is no
coincidence that unemployment is also concentrated in
coloured and African communities. These are critical
quality-of-life issues. An acceptable quality of life for
the people of the Western Cape will only be reached when
each person has the opportunity to realise his or her
potential.
Creating an enabling environment for economic growth is
another of our policy objectives which fit in very well
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 70 of 226
with national objectives. It is therefore disturbing to
note that foreign investors often face nearly
insurmountable hurdles when attempting to invest here. I
would like to thank the hon the President for his
intervention in this regard to ensure that one of the top
investors in the Western Cape will now be getting the
permits to bring people across. It is very much
appreciated. If we plan to meet the challenges of a growing
economy in the new millennium, we must establish a system
which encourages foreign investors, rather than scaring
them off. As I said in my recent discussions with the
President - I want to place it on record here today - from
our side we believe it is important that there should be
good relations between Pretoria and Wale Street. [Time
expired.] [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF FINANCE: Madam Chairperson, Mr President,
Deputy President, premiers and hon members, the focus of
today's discussion, clearly, has to be on change, not just
change in general, but also, more importantly, on the
management of change.
We live in an era which has brought with it positive
changes in technology, in work organisation, in health care
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 71 of 226
systems and in information. Over the past 40 years the
world average life expectancy has risen more than in the
past 4 000 years. Child death rates have fallen by half
since 1965. A child born today can expect to live a decade
longer than a child born then.
Adult literacy rates have also risen from 48% in 1970 to
72% in 1997. Cross-border communication between people is
growing in leaps and bounds. The time spent on
international telephone calls rocketed from 33 billion
minutes in 1990 to 70 billion minutes in 1996. The world is
now more prosperous, with average per capita incomes having
more than tripled as global GDP increased ninefold, from $3
trillion to $30 trillion in the past 50 years.
However, these trends mark great unevenness. Advances have
been made but they have brought with them new setbacks.
Nearly 1,3 billion people do not have access to clean
water; one in seven children of primary school age is out
of school; an estimated 1,3 billion people live on incomes
of less than $1 a day.
It has been estimated by the UNDP that a 4% levy on the
world's 225 most well-to-do people would suffice to provide
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 72 of 226
the following essentials for all people in developing
countries: adequate food, safe water and sanitation, basic
education, basic health care and reproductive health care.
This is a pen picture of the world we live in. A world
which used to comprise highly differentiated self-contained
sovereign states is now one where the borders between
countries are little more than picket fences for adornment
and demarcation, and little else. We have moved from a
world which was once marked by governments with control
over resources to one where little wealth is common or
public, despite the fact that we are in the Commonwealth.
We live in a world where inequality of wealth and
opportunities is growing within countries. It is not only a
phenomenon between countries. In the USA, for example, the
inequality problem based on falling real wages for low-paid
workers has been unparalleled since the Great Depression.
The growing inequalities between countries are even more
stark - the fifth of the world's people living in the
highest-income countries have 86% of the world's GDP,
whereas the bottom fifth have a mere 1%; they have 82% of
the world's export markets, while the bottom fifth have 1%;
they have 74% of the world's telephone lines while the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 73 of 226
bottom fifth have 1,5%. OECD countries, which have 19% of
the global population, have 71% of the global trade in
goods and services, 58% of foreign direct investment and
91% of all Internet users.
This is the world we live in. It is the one in which we
have developed highly sophisticated weapons, yet each day
thousands are killed in wars fought with the crudest of
weaponry, while those who can play a positive role look on
impotently. In this world we produce more food than all of
us together can consume, but yet we cannot feed the
starving. In this world we can unravel the mysteries of the
galaxies, but we fail to understand even our own families.
This world, this enormous paradox, our world, is also our
opportunity.
Yet we must choose to engage with this world. We cannot
choose to ignore it. In order to engage, we must understand
it. In understanding it, we will recognise both the threats
and opportunities it presents here. Two comments on this
are worth repeating here. Firstly: If a free society cannot
help the many who are poor, it cannot serve the few who are
rich. Secondly: Development that perpetuates today's
inequalities is neither sustainable nor worth sustaining.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 74 of 226
Clear leadership was offered on this issue by CHOGM last
week. The Fancourt declaration already referred to by the
President earlier says:
In today's world, no country is untouched by the forces of
globalisation. Our destinies are linked together as never
before. The challenge is to seize the opportunities opened
by globalisation, while minimising its risks... the
persistence of poverty and human deprivation diminishes us
all. It makes global peace and security fragile, limits the
growth of markets, and forces millions to migrate in search
of a better life. It constitutes a deep and fundamental
structural flaw in the world economy. The greatest
challenge therefore facing us is how to channel the forces
of globalisation for the elimination of poverty and the
empowerment of human beings to lead fulfilling lives.
This is the moral imperative we cannot avoid. This is the
litmus test for the quality of decisions we take in this
Chamber and for the quality of decisions we take as
Government. Undoubtedly, democracy must effect tangible
improvements in the quality of life of all our country's
people. Even the rich will have their lives improved if we
target our efforts towards the elimination of poverty and
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 75 of 226
the empowerment of the historically disadvantaged, because
these freedoms are the reason we have struggled so hard,
and for so long.
Amartya Sen, last year's Nobel economic laureate, writes,
and I quote:
Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development,
they are also among its principal means. In addition to
understanding, foundationally, the evaluative importance
of freedom, we also have to understand the remarkable
empirical connection that links freedoms of different
kinds with one another.
Political freedoms, in the form of free speech and
elections, help to promote economic security. Social
opportunities, in the form of education and health
facilities, facilitate economic participation. Economic
facilities, in the form of opportunities for participation
in trade and production, can help generate personal
abundance and public resources for social facilities.
Freedoms of different kinds can strengthen one another.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 76 of 226
These views offer very real alternatives to the all too
dominant idea that the only motor force towards economic
prosperity is that the winner takes all. Instead, societies
will create concord - indeed they must - by developing
norms of caring. Our role as policy-makers is to facilitate
the linkages between different freedoms which will create
the platform which can provide a continuous and sustainable
set of outcomes.
It is our responsibility to create a country which cares
for others, a country in which the needs of everyone can be
met. Central to this must be an agreement and a belief that
we can, and must, make a difference. It would be patently
incorrect to allow the situation to develop into what one
commentator described as ``a Republican freshman's
paradise'', of which I am sure I heard strains here earlier
this morning, where nobody bothers to pay taxes, and where
there is no gun control and no welfare and no big
government need exist; in fact, where there is just a
jungle. It never can work.
In South Africa, we must develop appropriately efficient
institutions to effect the changes. We must continue to
drive the Reconstruction and Development Programme
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 77 of 226
underpinned by Gear and we must, through Batho Pele, put
our people first. This remains our response to the moral
imperative. We are clear on the challenges, we are clear on
what we can achieve. This world, this paradox, our world
clearly remains our opportunity. It beckons, it needs
change, it shall change. We will drive those changes, but
at the same time we are reminded of the words of John
Donne: ``When you have done, you have not done, for there
is more.'' [Applause.]
Mr L M GREEN: Chairperson, hon Mr President, Deputy
President, Ministers, premiers and members, the vision of
the ACDP for the millennium is based on principles that
have survived for more than 2000 years, and we are sure
that they will continue to grow and illuminate the new
millennium. But, before I address this House on the ACDP's
vision for the new millennium, I would like to take this
opportunity to respond to President Mbeki's scathing attack
on the ACDP on 30 June, when he closed the debate on the
address at the opening of Parliament. [Interjections.]
We thought it fit and proper not to respond to the
President's attack on our party by means of a dialogue
through the press, but to answer the President when he
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 78 of 226
returned to this House. This is our first opportunity since
30 June. [Interjections.] The President said, and I quote:
Many of us have sat in this House over the past five
years and heard the ACDP propound a mean, angry,
vengeful, soulless and retributive theology. At all times
the spokespersons of this party have appended a Christian
label to everything they said.
That the President would so choose to give the House such a
warped interpretation of our faithful walk with the JudaeoChristian values demeans him rather than us. The President,
for example, accuses us of callousness because we have
consistently called for the judiciary to have the
discretion to invoke the death penalty for particular
brands of cold-blooded murder in line with biblical
principles.
The President must know that we do this to end the
bloodletting and the violence, where we have become the
crime centre of the world, and not to give vent to our
anger through vengeance on our part. The President pretends
that our total opposition to abortion somehow leads to
illegal backstreet abortions, with all the consequences
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 79 of 226
thereof. We pray that the President will somehow be able to
explain the mass slaughter of unborn children that has
brutalised our society... [Interjections.] ... since his
party has turned our hospitals and clinics into the
slaughterhouses of the unborn. I could go on and on
answering these false allegations if I had time. However,
let me now return to the millennium issues.
The ACDP will speak in support of strengthening and
protecting the family in the next millennium. The House has
adopted certain important pieces of legislation towards
this end. We recall the Domestic Violence Act and the
Maintenance Act as a few excellent examples. The ACDP will
in future aim to promote more legislation which will
especially promote and recognise the family as the centre
in the promotion of social, cultural and family values. Our
society's moral fabric is suffering acute weariness as the
family, which provides the nation's moral hedge, is being
trampled down.
The South African society has over the last few years
undergone rapid changes. A society in transition is
automatically confronted with a host of differing
philosophies, world view and values which may not be
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 80 of 226
socially constructive to the new national development of a
country. We must admit that the rise in rape crimes,
disrespect for law enforcement authorities, government
corruption and many other social evils are not the kind of
values we must allow to take root in our society in the new
millennium.
In supporting Government's efforts to root out these social
evils, we are saying that we cannot do it without God's
plan for the millennium. God, in His wisdom, has chosen the
family - the husband, wife and children - to reform our
society in the new millennium. The family is the
indisputable and indispensable central institution of civil
society. It is the family that is vested with the primary
competence to develop the good character of children. The
reformation of our nation in the millennium begins with
ourselves and our families. When the family infrastructure
is the formidable stalwart of a nation, their children
develop into truthful and responsible adults who will
invariably practise private virtues, public citizenship and
accountability that will transform our nation.
In conclusion, we may all have grand schemes for the new
millennium, but God has the master plan. He has been
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 81 of 226
gracious to give us a glimpse of His master plan in the
great book, the Bible. We are looking forward in the new
millennium to the return of Jeshua Meshiach, the Messiah
who will successfully defend the nation of Israel in the
final battle of Armageddon which will be followed by 1 000
years of world peace when the world will be governed, not
by the UN or any other world body, but by Jesus Christ from
the capital of Jerusalem. [Applause.]
Sister B NCUBE: Madam Speaker, hon President Thabo Mbeki,
hon Deputy President, hon members, I will ignore the speech
by the hon Green. I have no time to deal with him, but just
for my own speech.
Our liberation struggle was unique because it was led by
men and women of extraordinary gifts of visionary insights.
Thus South Africa is entering the new millennium, having
achieved its formal political liberation and a Constitution
that is considered to be one of the best in the world. But,
in the words of Joseph Storey:
The Constitution has been reared for immortality - if the
work of men and women may justly aspire to such a title.
It may, nevertheless, perish in an hour by the folly, or
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 82 of 226
corruption, or negligence of its only keepers, the
people.
The lessons that the ANC tradition can give to the new
millennium are derived from many sources of inspiration,
secular and religious. My focus will be on religious
sources. All religions are founded on the universal value
of human rights. In Genesis 1: 27 it is said: ``All people
are created by God.'' It further says that people are not
only created by God, but that they are particularly made in
the image of God, the Creator. This God, who created
humanity, gave us real human dignity by creating us all in
His image and likeness. Nobody, and nothing, can take that
away from us.
The greatest mistake that humanity ever made was to suggest
or even accept the myth of the superiority and inferiority
of races, a barbaric concept based on the colour of one's
skin. The late Julius Nyerere, one of the bitter critics of
this form of discrimination, was reported as saying:
When someone discriminates against you because you have bad
table manners, it is bad - but not that bad because there
is a possibility that some day you will polish your table
manners and the discrimination against you will stop. But
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 83 of 226
if someone discriminates against you because you are black,
it is tragically sad because there will be no way out of
this quandary - except to fight him or her to the death.
[Applause.] This racial discrimination amounts to an
ontological onslaught on one's very being. Nyerere's
analysis has highlighted the gist of discrimination by
colour and race. On race, it is harder to defend those who
practise such discrimination.
The founding fathers of the ANC were underpinned by this
universal need to restore to the South African nation their
God-given human dignity. They took up the struggle for the
liberation of all South Africans, both the victims and the
perpetrators. Never again should South Africa tolerate the
brutal violence of this racist government.
From the ANC presidential records, we know that some of the
most powerful leaders of the movement were clergymen from
different denominations. Rev John Dube was president of the
ANC in 1912 and Rev F M Makgatho was president from 19171924. The list of activists who were pastors and priests in
the movement does speak for itself. The late president of
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 84 of 226
the ANC, Oliver Tambo's ordination was held back by his
escaping into exile.
Here I shall ask the famous question frequently put to men
and women of the cloth: Why did you join the ANC, or why
did you engage in politics? My personal answer to this
question is simple. Our God-given dignity is a call to
serve. The Bible says that we are created in God's image.
As such, we are called to represent God in our world. We
are called to represent God's concern, care and love for
our world, its people, and even our workplace and the work
which we do.
It is a matter of record today, what drove the many women
and men to join the ANC. It was the call to the prophetic
duty to let God's people go, and God has heard their cries.
Most of us are familiar with the prophetic message in the
Old Testament that inspired the prophets to struggle even
with God, to fulfil their prophetic mission.
In South Africa, the apartheid state theology was what
drove the many religious people to join the liberation
struggle. Its state theology was unique unto itself. It was
the state theology for the justification of the status quo,
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 85 of 226
with its racism, capitalism and totalitarianism. It blessed
injustices, canoned the will of the powerful and reduced
the poor to passivity, obedience and apathy. It did this by
misusing theological concepts, as the hon Green is doing
now, and the biblical texts for its own political purposes.
Romans 13: 1-7 was the most used biblical text:
You must all obey the governing authorities, since all
government comes from God.
That was stated. The civil authorities were appointed by
God. They were not elected by men. I continue:
And so, anyone who resists authority is rebelling against
God's decision and such an act is bound to be punished.
And they did punish us. To control this state, the concept
of law and order maintained the status quo which it
depicted as normal. But the laws were the unjust and
discriminatory laws of apartheid, and the order was the
organised and institutionalised disorder of oppression.
Coming to the challenges to action, as we enter the
millennium 2000, the biblical tradition of the Jubilee
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 86 of 226
Year, when slaves are released from bondage, property
redistributed, the land given back to owners, and the
renewal does provide a powerful impetus towards the RDP
programmes for reconstructing the human relationships and
the development of programmes. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mr M V MOOSA: Chairperson, Sister B should not worry. The
ACDP is not Y2K compliant. [Laughter.] [Applause.]
Chairperson, Comrade President and comrade premiers,
regardless of whether this is a passage of a millennium or
of just another century, one thing is certain, this era
will never be repeated.
South Africa has come alive in a mere five years. In a few
seconds of history, we have tested our full potential and
the world watches in awe. While we continue to forge ahead
into unknown terrain, we are taking the lead in the
Nonaligned Movement, the Commonwealth of Nations, the OAU,
SADC, ACP, the World Trade Organisation and are trading
with Europe.
We need to be mindful that, with every momentous stride we
take, we open up new opportunities, but also new
challenges. As we take on new responsibilities abroad, we
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 87 of 226
simultaneously place heavier burdens on our shoulders at
home. Daily, we recommit ourselves to succeed.
Are our national institutions of Government, our provincial
governments and local governments sufficiently sensitised
to this immense responsibility which we are amassing on a
daily basis? How soon will we see beyond our fight to
eliminate corruption, inefficiency and institutional
blockages so that we can begin rolling up our sleeves and
truly create a nation at work? Has our business community
committed itself to redefining its role so that we look
beyond merely increasing profits, and begin rethinking the
very notion of supply and profit?
Will we maximise our new European opportunities by only
tightening up production and our administrative capacity to
export? More than 15 European countries will be ready to
increase exports to South Africa in just 43 days' time.
What are we to do in order to export heavily our own Sacu
regional commodities into Europe to counterbalance trade? I
believe that we will only meet these challenges if we are
to move away from a conservative and conventional Western
notion of supply, demand and production. We must urgently
roll out a strategy of mass economic empowerment so that
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 88 of 226
every one of our 45 million people are given the
opportunity to play a role in meeting these 21st-century
challenges. Black and white, male and female, young and old
will have to work in unison to heighten productivity
levels.
A few empowerment consortiums that enter the stock exchange
and engage in takeovers and mergers, as vital as these may
be to shift economic power, will not be able to seize these
new opportunities, nor are they likely to unlock the
poverty of our people as effectively as mass empowerment
would. In six weeks' time, the European markets will begin
to open up. There are as many markets in other parts of the
world. I believe we have already created sufficient
opportunity, if well harnessed, to totally eliminate
unemployment, raise our per capita income and generate
sufficient revenue to complete our Reconstruction and
Development Programme.
Our provincial and local spheres of government must, under
the leadership of national Government, urgently take four
steps. They should, firstly, mobilise and deepen our
people's perceptions of empowerment; secondly, lead the
process towards making resources, skills and infrastructure
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 89 of 226
available at a mass level; thirdly, develop strategies to
market local, regional and provincial areas as primary
producers of well-researched commodities; and, fourthly,
assist SMMEs in research and product development with the
resources of the DTI. In addition, we need to rethink the
principles that guide our organisations, our society, and
even our personal lives. To generate wealth, and to meet
21st-century challenges, we have to be both local and
global, both centralised and decentralised.
Large companies, banks, SMMEs and the small rural farmer
must all learn to plan for the long term, yet be flexible
enough to quickly make strategic policy and structural
changes when necessary. We must force our industries,
including SMMEs, to become more focused. We must not only
expect them to become leaders in their industries, but we
must teach them how to redefine their industries to stay
ahead, to create jobs, and to increase production.
Collectively, our SMMEs must innovate and upgrade so that,
as a nation, we achieve unique specialisation in key
sectors that become market leaders. Our SMMEs must be
focused into core competencies. Collectively, they must
learn one day earlier than their competitors about
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 90 of 226
technology and demand, and they must spend less time and
money than their competitors finding this out. SMMEs must
develop high-performing production processes, while
satisfying customers by giving them what they want, not
what they think they want.
However, most importantly, we must, as a nation, learn to
manage the paradoxes of a fast-changing world to our
advantage. We must find pathways through paradox. We cannot
merely respond to the future. We must take charge of it.
The great excitement about our future is that we can shape
it. Every South African should know that there is no golden
route to glory. In all that we do, we must know that
tomorrow's successful nations will be those which value
their principles more than their companies. [Time expired.]
[Applause.]
The MINISTER OF EDUCATION: Comrade Chairperson, Comrade
President, hon members, may I begin with a question. Why do
we take such an event as the millennium seriously? It is as
though the arrival of a new year with lots of zeros should
necessarily and mystically add up to something special. We
could remain aloof and criticise all the exaggerated
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 91 of 226
commercialism based on some kind of Eurocentric,
religiously based calendar as an excuse for a good party.
But, whether we like it or not, epochs do matter. For
example, partisans of the French Revolution in 1789 turned
the calendar back to zero. They began counting again from
year one, because they had a keen sense of the link between
time and injustice. For many of us 27 April 1994 now
appears to be the beginning of a common citizenship for all
South Africans. And so too Bertolt Brecht wrote in his
Songs of the Soldier of the Revolution:
When the difficulty
Of the mountains is once behind
That's when you'll see
The difficulty of the plains will start.
Our experience of the 20th century in South Africa has been
one of negotiating a high mountain, fraught with enormous
difficulties. From the pain and triumph of struggle our
battle culminated in the extraordinary settlement of 1994
and the victory of our liberation movement together with
the development of a social contract embodied in our new
Constitution. As we prepare to enter the new century we
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 92 of 226
face the deceptively flat plains, which present a new and
more serious set of challenges and which are likely to be
immeasurably more difficult to negotiate.
What is the baggage we intend to carry into the 21st
century? Right at the beginning of this century W E B Du
Bois, the United States historian, predicted that the
problem of the 20th century would be the problem of the
colour line. And throughout the world this century has seen
race as a salient factor. From the inherent racism of
colonialism, to the holocaust and the evil experiences of
apartheid, very few societies, least of all those in which
whites have formed the majority, have been able to deal
systematically or at all with issues of racism and its
effects.
In no place was this more evident than in South Africa. We
said, ``We shall overcome!'' and we did just that. So ours
now is a world of formal equality, but that is not enough.
We must conquer the difficulty of the plains, confront the
major fault lines in our society. Now our challenge is to
celebrate our diversity and our multicultural origins as a
nation of different traditions and persuasions, but not in
the way that assorted ethnochauvinists have tried to do, by
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 93 of 226
building barricades around ourselves. We cannot advance
towards a common identity through cultural separation, or
through the tattered banners of inherited tribal and ethnic
identities.
For example, every few months or so the same tired band of
would-be ethnoseparatists launch yet another campaign to
save the allegedly beleaguered Afrikaans language. The fact
is that Afrikaans writers such as André Brink were far more
endangered by the old apartheid regime, which allegedly
championed Afrikaans, than they would ever be under the new
constitutional and moral order, which protects the cultural
rights of all of us. Culture is not static, and if one
locks it into a kind of ghetto by protecting it from other
influences and other cultures, it will wither away.
In 1994 we were indeed a house divided, yet we joined hands
to pull our nation back from the very pit of destruction.
Today our government at all levels, together with
institutions of civil society, must work to rekindle the
sparks of nonracialism and integration which were the
hallmarks of our liberation struggle. We must mobilise
ourselves to re-establish the plain, essential values of
decency and the recognition of the common good.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 94 of 226
In a globalising international order there is allegedly
more interdependence and common intellectual and commercial
interest among the peoples of the world than ever before.
Yet the sickening ethnic wars and genocide of the past 10
years in other parts of the world tell us a different
story. The purveyors of hatred and xenophobia insist that
human diversity is an evil to be resisted.
The reassertion of ethnic chauvinism and racism and the
elevation to positions of power and influence of
chauvinistic political parties, especially in Europe, I
should say - the very continent which first proclaimed the
rights of man - is a development that we must watch with
intense concern and combat with all our power. Yeats's
``rough beast'' is still slouching its way to Bethlehem,
its time now come, to the shame of these democratic
countries.
So, we can show the way as we did in 1994, when we played
out the proud affirmation of 1955 that South Africa belongs
to all those who live in it - black and white. But we
cannot be blind to the fact that formal equality is not
enough. If we are to avoid a repetition of the tragic
events of the Tempe military base and the vitriol of the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 95 of 226
Hoërskool Vryburg racist incidents, we dare not ignore that
there are enormous racial chasms which still divide this
country, which are still associated with feelings of racial
and cultural superiority on one hand, and a legacy of
economic wellbeing for a few and deprivation for the many
on the other. This long and painful process on the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission has helped bridge such
chasms, but has not eradicated them altogether. So we need
to accept the challenge of celebrating our diversity.
We must give our millennium resolutions practical effect by
ensuring that our education and other programmes are
designed to bind our country under a single banner. It is
more than just tolerance and understanding that are
required, but a genuine effort to develop a common value
system for all who live in South Africa, freed of sexism
and racism. It is disappointing that many of our fellow
South Africans - or some South Africans - have chosen to
condemn rather than critically welcome legislation which
will deal with questions of equity, equality and
antidiscrimination. This is as though some people see
disaster in every mistake we make and take an almost
pornographic delight in each incident that can be
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 96 of 226
interpreted as confirming their fear of the imminent
collapse of South Africa.
There is a meanness of spirit and a lack of understanding
of the enormous generosity of our African brothers and
sisters. Our diversity must be a source of celebration. For
this reason, I want to announce the setting up of a
directorate in my department, to develop policies for the
pursuit of common values, not only in education. I shall
soon announce the appointment of a senior public figure to
head the working group on diversity in education.
More than ever, our country needs dedicated and committed
citizens who will be champions in opposing racism and
sexism in all spheres of life. A challenge for us is how to
focus in and dismantle the racial legacy. I want,
therefore, to plead for a celebration at the turn of the
century, looking forward to the future with a determination
to grasp the opportunities we have in South Africa. We must
face the challenge of building a better world, not just for
ourselves as individuals or for a limited circle of the
like-minded, but for the benefit of all.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 97 of 226
Perhaps this is an ancient message. It is appropriate, it
comes from an ancient continent and an ancient culture
which gave birth to the many peoples in the world. It is a
message that applies to all of us. Let the new century
truly be an African century, freed of racism, sexism and
all forms of discrimination. [Applause.]
Dr A I VAN NIEKERK: Madam Chair, hon President and
premiers, I gladly follow on the Minister of Education. He
and his department have a great responsibility in the
future to unleash the potential of our youth and to obtain
for us that which we wish and so dearly seek for the new
South Africa in a new millennium.
I agree, with regard to our diversity, that there are
underlying differences. They will always be with us and we
shall have to manage them carefully. In some cases we shall
have to be patient when dealing with them. I support the
Minister in that.
This opportunity to welcome a next millennium in all
probability only presents itself once in a lifetime. Very
few of us here will see the next millennium, but we should
be careful that the memory of what we did and the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 98 of 226
opportunities that we had do not haunt us in the next
millennium when we are not there.
We are wonderfully blessed to be able to enter the new
millennium with less internal strife and free of civil war.
It gives us a good start. Whatever future we wish for
ourselves will be within our gift to attain. We have the
human and natural resources to do it. Let there be no doubt
that South Africa is the top country in Africa, and
therefore our President the top man.
Having said that, I would want to stress the leadership
role both our country and the President ought to play in
this continent - as he so eloquently put forward in his
speech before the House today. As of late, the President
has put real emphasis on addressing poverty, not only in
our country, but also throughout Africa. If anything, it is
poverty that will shatter the hope and the future of what
we want in the new millennium. We therefore have no
hesitation in supporting our President in his well-directed
ambitions in this regard.
The FA and other political parties believe that we can
offer the President some suggestions on how to attain this
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 99 of 226
goal in the long term. We must make use of all the know-how
of the people of all the political parties within South
Africa if we want to achieve success.
South Africa is far advanced compared with the rest of the
continent. After all, one has only to look at the level of
achievement as far as our infrastructure is concerned. It
therefore remains imperative that any deterioration of
buildings, roads and other infrastructure in general be
addressed posthaste.
Why do I say this? I say this because, for us to attain
investors' confidence, be it local or foreign, we have to
emit the sense of affluence, not the type of affluence one
would find in the super-rich countries, but the affluence
which emanates from the sound application and management of
people and money. We need these investors and investments.
They will bring the concomitant knock-on effect for the
state in increased revenues which are the only means to
even begin to come to the rescue of the poor. We cannot
escape our responsibility to alleviate the plight of the
poor in this new millennium.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 100 of 226
Alone we cannot do it. To put our huge powerhouse of
potential into action, we need to develop our natural
resources and unlock the wealth of our mineral riches,
surely the most vast in the world. Doing so, we will obtain
the means to do something about this problem. Of course, we
have to vigorously combat crime, and we must commend the
steps being taken by the Minister in this regard. Crime not
only steals our material goods and lives, but seriously
threatens our future.
The millennium is upon us. The future is there for us to
shape. The FA believes that South Africa has the people and
the will to make the next 100 years a positive experience
and an unforgettable one. It will be a century that will
see South Africa and all its people take their rightful
place in history. Let posterity be a kind judge of our
achievements in this new millennium. [Applause.]
Mr I S MFUNDISI: Chairperson, hon President, hon Deputy
President ...
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Order! Hon member, would you
stop? Members, could I ask that you keep your voice levels
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 101 of 226
down? The noise is getting rather loud. Proceed, hon
member.
Mr I S MFUNDISI: Hon members, the second millennium is
winding to a close, leaving room for the next. Whether it
is 13 months away or not, it shall come to pass and it
shall be.
The current millennium has not been so pleasant for South
Africans, particularly those of darker hue. They have had
different governments rule over them: the British, the
Afrikaners and some homeland leaders, and the latter part
of the millennium saw the country land in a democracy led
by an African. It is not only with regard to governments
that blacks have seen change. They have been called
different names too: Natives, nonwhites, plurals, Bantu,
blacks, and, of their own accord, Africans.
Moving into the new millennium, we are faced with
challenges. Some people have always doubted the ability of
blacks when it comes to leadership. My party, the UCDP,
believes that no man or woman was created with soil crumbs
that fell from the master's table as he was creating some
super race. We believe that we are endowed with abilities
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 102 of 226
like all other people and no one should play master over
us. We move into the coming millennium with a maxim that
South Africans are second to none. A march into the next
millennium requires that we be self-reliant, confident and
determined people.
People should feel their selfworth, notwithstanding their
circumstances. The work ethic of our people should be
raised. All should work tirelessly in what they do. Players
should play well, parents should do their parenting well
and legislators should legislate well. It is through
hardwork that we can succeed. A floor sweeper too should
sweep the floor well, take pride in what he does and
virtually feel that no one can do it better than he does.
We head for the next millennium with over 3,2 million South
Africans reported to be infected or living with HIV/Aids.
We hope that at the turn of the millennium, the debate over
the provision of AZT to pregnant women will have stopped. A
decision must be taken as a matter of urgency on the use of
the drug. The ending millennium saw the discovery of Xrays, open-heart-transplant surgery, the introduction of
the Internet and many others. We look forward to more
inventions, as science and technology have also improved.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 103 of 226
To this end much still has to be done in transforming the
criminal justice system. Crime continues to rise in the
country and the challenge facing the police, the judiciary
and correctional services is how to bring it under control.
The efforts of Government are appreciated, but all should
throw their weight behind the Government to rid society of
crime. After all, crime is not selective - it touches the
hearts of all people regardless of their gender or agenda,
or whether they are to the right or left of this House. We
all have to take the war to the criminals and flush them
out of society in the next millennium.
As we prepare for the next millennium, our economy has to
be up to scratch. In a country with a dearth for jobs, our
migration policies should be conducive to investment. After
all, the business of investment is money and money
understands one reward, and that is profits. A review of
the labour laws, which is ongoing at the moment, has to be
finalised in time so that at the end the laws should
benefit both the workers and employers. It does not help
much to come up with a Rolls-Royce piece of legislation in
a rough terrain, of unskilled workers and intolerant
management.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 104 of 226
In the envisaged future, workers have to be well trained
and ready for the work they are supposed to do. The African
renaissance will remain a mirage that is inaccessible if
there is no economic sustainability and growth. As Africans
awake, one envisages a society with a commercial component
in which they - that is, the Africans - are participants
and not an adjunct to the economy. It is decisions which
promote economic growth that will advance their interests.
Regional co-operation should be sought in the interests of
all, because capital flows towards large and integrated
markets. This should be our strategy for the incoming
millennium.
There are some examples that might be followed. We may take
a leaf from the book of Peru, whose government was corrupt
and incompetent though democratically elected. Hernando de
Soto in his book, The Other Path, describes conditions in
Peru before President Fujimoro introduced these reforms as
follows, and I quote:
Attacks, kidnappings, rapes and murders have coincided
with increasingly aggressive driving habits and unsafe
streets. The police have gradually lost control of the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 105 of 226
situation and some of their members have been involved in
scandals and have become seasoned criminals.
This sounds like reading something on the present situation
in South Africa. The Peruvian economy was in a state of
collapse and the average real income had declined over a
period of 10 years. Prisons were commandeered by inmates.
Fujimoro undertook reforms that saw the indiscriminate
printing of money being halted, free markets promoted,
industries privatised and government employees drastically
reduced.
Even with these drastic measures, Fujimoro's popularity
grew and one year after the introduction of the reforms the
GDP increased by 12,9%. Between 1993 and 1996 Peru's
economy grew by one third to record the highest rate in
Latin America. This is an example which may yield the same
positive results for us. Perhaps we need to master courage
and set out the path that will lead us into the next
millennium with hope.
Re tshwanelwa ke go tsena mo ngwagaketeng e e tlang re
kanotse dihuba, re sa belaele dinonofo tsa rona jaaka re le
batho. Re tshwanetse go itse le go tlotla dilo tse di re
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 106 of 226
tshwaraganyang. Ke rata go gwetla ditokololo tsa Ntlo eno
gore go nne mo go rona go itse go opela sefela sa setšhaba
se feletse. Bangwe ba itse go opela mafoko a segabona fela,
mme mafoko a Senyesemane one ga a itsiwe ke bontsi ba baagi
ba naga e.
Ka ntlha ya fa bosenyi bo atile, Puso mo nakong e e
fetileng e dirile boikuelo mo setšhabeng, segolobogolo mo
baeteledipeleng ba sedumedi, go tsweletsa pele lenaneo la
kagoseša ya semowa. Kgetsi ya tsie e kgonwa ka go
tshwaraganelwa. Baeteledipele ba, ba tlhoka tshegetso le
thotloetso ya baeteledipele ba sepolotiki jaaka rona, ka e
le bona ba tshotseng marapo a tsamaiso.
Go botlhokwa thata gore tirelo-Modimo e seka ya felela
motlhang go tlhonngwang tlhogo ya naga mo maemong, mme
morago ga foo go tsenwe mo ditirong le mo dipitsong ntle le
go neela tsamaiso ya tse re rulaganyang go di dira mo go
mong wa dithatha tsotlhe. (Translation of Tswana paragraphs
follows.)
[We should enter this new millennium with our heads held
high, not doubting our own abilities as people. We should
respect and know the things which unite us. I would like to
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 107 of 226
make an appeal to members of this House to learn to sing
the national anthem in its entirety. Others are able to
sing the African version of the anthem but not the English
version.
Since crime has increased, the Government in the past made
an appeal to the nation, especially religious leaders, to
further the idea of an RDP of the soul. United, we can
achieve a lot. These leaders need the support and
encouragement of political leaders such as ourselves,
because they are in charge of delivery.
It is very important that religious services should not end
the day the President is elected to office. We should not
begin our meetings and other functions without
acknowledging the presence of the Almighty.]
Education has received priority attention. I am grateful
that the Minister has indicated that more appointments will
be made to try to improve the quality of education in the
country. There will be little or no room for people with no
education in the coming millennium.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 108 of 226
The efforts being mounted by our Minister to make
educational institutions accessible to all is praiseworthy.
The institutions should serve the community. They should
not only provide tuition but should also be used to shape
the character of the community. Progressive pieces of
legislation in education are being put together, among them
one which will ensure access to funds for higher education
by eligible and deserving learners. The fact that such
funds may be obtained without an obligation to repay them
in whole or in part, depending on the individual's
circumstances, should be motivation enough for those
awarded the funding to come back and serve the nation
loyally and responsibly.
As the old order changes and yields to the new, the hope
for the next millennium is that by then computerisation
should rule the roost. Our people should be compliant
thereto. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mr L G LEVER: Madam Chair, Mr President, hon premiers and
hon members, the millennium marks the anniversary of an
event that has a special significance to our fellow
citizens of the Christian faith. I wish to take this
opportunity to wish them well over this important period.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 109 of 226
The dawn of the new century is relevant to every South
African. There is an air of expectation. Our people wish to
see an improvement to the quality of their lives in this
new era. In particular, we wish to see the quality of life
of the poorest and most marginalised members of our society
improved in a meaningful and sustainable manner. This is,
in essence, the key challenge facing us in the new
millennium.
There are many obstacles and hurdles to be overcome in
achieving our goal of improving the quality of life of our
poor and marginalised citizens. However, this new age will
certainly also provide many opportunities that will need to
be fully exploited if we are to achieve our goals.
Our plans for economic development will have to take
account of the phenomenon of globalisation. Globalisation
has the potential to be both a hurdle and an opportunity
for our economic aspirations. If sectors of our economy are
uncompetitive in a global environment, the relevant
industries will either have to learn to compete very
quickly or face bankruptcy and closure, with the natural
consequence of a loss of jobs. This makes it imperative
that we do succeed in the global market and we have to
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 110 of 226
ensure that our economic and labour policies are
appropriate to enable us to compete globally.
One of the forces driving the trend towards globalisation
is the regular and accelerating technological advances made
in the field of information technology. These advances
provide opportunities for economic development. In order to
exploit these opportunities, our people need to acquire the
skill necessary, in order to capitalise on these advances
in an innovative and creative manner.
If one observes the trends in the global market, it is
clear that it is the creativity and innovative capacity of
our people that holds the key to success in this field.
Consequently, we have to allocate resources to appropriate
education. In short, we have to invest in our people, but
we have to go further. We have to create a society that
respects and promotes creativity and innovation. We have to
create and foster an opportunity society.
No discussion of the challenges facing us in the new
century can ignore the impact that the tragedy of Aids will
have on our future. The daily rate of infection has
increased dramatically over the past three years. We hope
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 111 of 226
for a cure, but until such time as a cure materialises, the
only resources we have are to inform and educate our people
on safe practices.
Despite several initiatives and having regard to the rising
rate of infection, the Government has failed to make an
impact on the crisis. Others, such as Uganda, have
succeeded where we have failed. It is difficult to quantify
accurately how Aids will impact on our future. But we can
certainly say that its impact will be profound.
In order to deal with the challenges of the new era, we
will have to constantly evaluate our progress and reaccess
our policies in relation to the progress which we make in
achieving our goals. In this process, dissenting and
critical voices do play a constructive and even a critical
role. We are ready to play our role in the new era and
commit ourselves to overcoming the challenges which we
face. [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS: Madam Chair, hon President
and hon members of this House, as we move closer and closer
to the next millennium and we reflect on both the past and
the future, we are challenged not only by our recent
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 112 of 226
history that is filled with pain but also by a distant
past, often not recognised, in which people of this
continent left indelible footprints on the sands of time,
and it is the latter on which I want to focus.
In the world of arts, culture, and music, science and
technology and means of communication, there can be no
doubt of the legacy which we have inherited. Traditional
communications across the continent reflect the rich
diversity of the use of drums and drumming to communicate
across long distances, sending articulated messages, and of
the use of musical instruments, clothing, plants and
powders, animals and beads to send intricate messages.
This is what has been called by Parker, ``the unfathomable
mysteries of a deeply inscrutable continent at which the
first Europeans to visit this continent often marvelled''.
The talking beat of the West African jembe drums, the
rhythms and the xylophones, the ululation of women, and the
ground-shaking dances of men are indicative not only of the
links we as African have on the continent, but also of a
deep knowledge of science and how sound travels.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 113 of 226
African knowledge of astronomy, which was very much eroded
under colonialism, has re-emerged. I had the pleasure, just
two days ago, to meet a group of young African astronomers
who have made it their vocation to study our forebearers'
contribution to the world of science. Their findings are
most interesting. They detail the archeoastronomic exploits
of the Dogon people of Mali who had an indepth knowledge
and understanding of the star Cirius.
The findings of these young South Africans also detail how,
for centuries, the people of Malawi and Mozambique through the star cluster Pleiades, commonly known as the
``Seven Sisters'' - developed their agriculture and crop
planting. What this demonstrates is that Africans, like all
humanity, have through the ages had an understanding and
knowledge of technology and applied science. Yet the
tragedy is that these two countries in particular are among
some of the poorest, but I believe all is not lost. That is
the contribution that Africa is making to the sciences.
This contribution to the sciences is substantial, and yet
many of us do not know about it. Take as an example the
branch of mathematics, algebra, which has its origins in
Africa. The President can imagine my surprise when I saw a
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 114 of 226
book entitled The Fathers of Mathematics. The fathers of
mathematics. On the cover, of course, were five bearded
Europeans, all of them white. The shock I got, knowing that
algebra certainly has its roots on this continent! Many of
our students do not know this, particularly students at our
institutions. To them mathematics is a foreign subject
whose origin is Europe. The lack of knowledge of our
history contributes to their fear of this subject and has
resulted in a lack of the development of scientists from
the black communities.
There are many other contributions by our forebears which
have provided a solid basis for the development of modern
technology. It is to these scientists and technologists
that many are returning to find African solutions to
African problems. Many of those that the President spoke
about, the Africans in the diaspora, are indeed saying that
this is what they want to come back to in order to
contribute to the renewal of this continent for the next
century.
What these forbears have done links us to the challenges of
communication in the new millennium, a millennium that the
secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, calls
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 115 of 226
the third wave of Africa's matamorphosis; an era of
information technology and sustainable development that
must give hope to the upcoming generations of Africa.
The President himself noted, when he was addressing the
United Nations recently, that the revolution of information
and communication technologies is a critical driver of the
process of globalisation that both enables and calls for
higher levels of education and standards of living amongst
billions who constitute the human population. He also
cautioned about the possible growing inequality within and
between countries resulting from globalisation and these
new technologies. The challenge for us, to which I know we
can rise, is to bridge the gap between the two polarised
economies that now define our country.
Ons sukses in hierdie eeu sal gebaseer moet word op die
realiteit dat ons werklik een Suid-Afrika en een nasie bou.
Ons moet wegbeweeg van twee nasies in een. Dit verg sterk
leierskap, 'n leierskap met visie, 'n visie wat verwag dat
elkeen van ons alles in ons vermoë doen om die lewe van
andere, veral die armes, te verbeter. (Translation of
Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 116 of 226
[Our success in this century will have to be based on the
reality that we are actually building one South Africa and
one nation. We must move away from two nations in one. This
requires strong leadership, a leadership with vision, a
vision that expects each and every one of us to do
everything in our power to improve the lives of others,
especially the poor.]
A leadership that can ensure that Africa's celestial voyage
of rediscovery is ultimately achieved; we have such a
heritage of leadership.
Boetapele bo jwalo re na le bona. Boetapele bo matlafatsang
leeto la Afrika ho fihlela le ho phethahatsa merero ya
tswelopele. Re kile ra ba le boetapele bo jwalo. Ke bua ka
ba tshwanang le Morena Albert Luthuli, Dr Xuma, Moruti
Mahabane, Lillian Ngoyi, Bram Fischer, Dorothy Nyembe, Sol
Plaatje le ba bang ba bangata.
Bona ke boetapele bo ileng ba kgethela ka thoko kgethollo
ya merabe le kgethollo ya sepolotiki lebitsong la ho
sebeletsa setjhaba ka boitelo ka dinako tsohle. [Keno
hanong.] (Translation of Sesotho paragraphs follows.)
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 117 of 226
[We have such quality of leadership. A leadership that
strengthens Africa's journey towards achieving and
fulfilling its development programmes. We have had such
quality of leadership also in the past. I refer to leaders
such as Chief Albert Luthuli, Dr Xuma, Rev Mahabane,
Lillian Ngoyi, Bram Fischer, Dorothy Nyembe, Sol Plaatje
and many others.
This is the leadership that put aside racial and political
discrimination in the interests of serving their nation
with full determination. [Interjections.]]
This is a leadership that is ... [Time expired.]
[Applause.]
Mr J S NDEBELE (KwaZulu-Natal): Chairperson, Mr President,
Ministers, premiers and members, in the first five years
from 1994 to 1999 the forces of counter-revolution, racism,
tribalism, sexism, male chauvinism, disunity and divisions,
and underdevelopment found their match in the popularly
elected Government of Mr Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki.
I would like to say that in these current five years that
are now beginning, ie those of President Thabo Mbeki's
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 118 of 226
Government, these forces shall not only find their match,
but their master. [Applause.] Martin Luthuli, Chief Mini
and Solly Msane, confronted by the same divisions of
powerlessness in 1899 and sharing the same vision upheld by
our President, but unlike him, having no instrument to
forge the liberation of the oppressed, said: ``If there is
no ANC, it is necessary to create it.'' Indeed, in 1900
they created the Natal Native Congress, which is a
forerunner to this Assembly.
South Africa is a country rich in natural resources, but
the richness of any country does not merely derive from
nature. If that were so, Japan and Switzerland would be
beggar nations and not donor nations. The single most
important resource of any country is its people. But South
Africa is a house divided unto itself and they labour in
vain those who want to build on such a foundation. It is
for this reason that we have said that the new foundation
will be peace, reconciliation and democracy.
That reconciliation means reconciliation between African
and African, African and coloured, African and Indian, and
between African and white. Starting with whites, they are
not homogeneous as is commonly believed. During the last
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 119 of 226
century, Bishop Colenso described a section of his fellow
citizens as a ``Shepstonian clique'' - those who believe
that to be the case are oppressors. But there were others,
led by Colenso himself and Dr Harriot, who not only said
that nonracialism was possible, but worked to turn that
possibility into reality, for which they paid dearly.
Recently, six Afrikaans-speaking whites from white rightwing parties in Newcastle joined the ANC. When we hear how
our white counterparts are still subjected to unbelievable
propaganda against any organisation, be it political,
cultural, business or professional, that is led by
Africans, one realises how much still needs to be done.
Perceptions are still prevalent that Africans cannot make a
mistake because they are a mistake. Have members of this
House ever wondered why in the Sunday Times the ``Mampara
of the Week'' is always African? It is an anti-African
prejudice that has aquired the force of habit. Ask those
white compatriots who broke from white-led organisations.
If one considers that their news is our news, but our news
is not their news, one will realise how much still needs to
be done.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 120 of 226
If the new millennium is going to be ruled by information
technology, it is important to please Africa and have some
measure of control of that technology. The basis for
African reconciliation has been laid in KwaZulu-Natal, and
there is no going back. This is sometimes described as a
miracle, but a miracle entails a degree of irrationality,
not only because it shocks reason, but because it makes no
appeal to it.
KwaZulu-Natal is one province that requires a rebirth, a
renewal. The foundations that have been laid have been laid
on the basis of a clear understanding that one cannot
achieve that reconciliation if one is still one-sided. The
maturity that is now prevalent in the leadership of the ANC
and the IFP, both in KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere, is laying
a basis which will make it possible for Africans never
again to be divided in favour of the continuation of white
oppression. [Applause.]
Genl C L VILJOEN: Mevrou die Speaker, agb President, dalk
is die oormatige beklemtoning van Oujaarsdag 1999 en
Nuwejaarsdag 2000 'n bietjie laf en oorgedramatiseerd. Ek
sal soos al die jare my beeste oppas en die spreiers self
op die plaas rondskuif omdat my werkers dan met verlof sal
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 121 of 226
wees. Nie veel verander nie. Tog, as die wisseling van
hierdie eeu, en ook die millennium, by ons aardse mense,
veral ons wat leiding moet gee, nuwe fokus bring om te
besin oor die strategiese bestuur van ons land, dan mag dit
die moeite werd wees om iets spesiaals daarvan te maak.
Waarvandaan kom ons, en waar gaan ons heen? Dit is meer as
ooit die geleentheid om krities te wees en te herbeplan.
Dit is eerstens die tydstip wat enige nederige mens bewus
maak van sy Skepper, want uit Hom is die heelal, die son,
die aarde, die maan en die sterre, hemelliggame waarvan die
reëlmatige bewegings tyd bepaal, 'n dag, 'n nag, somer,
winter, herfs en lente. Dit bring ons by 'n millennium oor
42 dae.
Wat is ons nasie se stand op morele gebied? Misdaadsyfers,
korrupsie, gebrek aan etiese standaarde en werksetiek is
kommerwekkend vir almal. Die oorsake hiervan is kompleks,
en kom uit die laaste kwart van hierdie eeu. Die oplossings
lê as 'n prioriteitsaak voor in die eerste kwart van die
volgende eeu. Morele heropbou en dieper godsdiensbewustheid
is nie net kerke se plig nie, maar elkeen van ons s'n.
Behalwe vir hierdie geestelike nood, is daar die materiële.
Die onmiddellikste behoeftes van miljoene gaan oor kos, 'n
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 122 of 226
dak oor 'n mens se gesin se kop en 'n werk. Dit gaan oor 'n
ekonomie wat moet groei, die verhoging van lewenskwaliteit.
Is Suid-Afrika se ekonomie, soos aan die begin van die eeu
ná die einde van die Boere-oorlog, aan skerwe? Het die
revolusie en die Koue Oorlog die ekonomie as wapen gebruik
en dit toe geknak? Dit maak nie saak wat die antwoorde is
nie. Dit is 'n feit dat massas van ons konsolidasie van
verandering opeis in die vorm van groter hoop en vir
voordele op materiële gebied, anders volg daar
onstabiliteit.
In die komende eeu hoef ons nie net demokrasie te probeer
afwentel na die gemeenskappe nie, ons moet ook ekonomie en
groei koppel aan gemeenskappe waar privaatonderneming en
intieme gemeenskapsgees die pas moet aangee om die ekonomie
te ontwikkel en werk te skep. (Translation of Afrikaans
paragraphs follows.)
[Gen C L VILJOEN: Madam Speaker, hon President, perhaps the
excessive emphasis on New Year's Eve 1999 and New Year's
Day 2000 is a bit silly and over-dramatised. As always, I
will be attending to my own cattle and moving the spreaders
on my farm around myself, because my workers will be on
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 123 of 226
leave. Not much will have changed. Yet, when the changing
of this century, and also the millennium, brings new focus
to us earthlings, especially to those of us who have to
take the lead, to reflect about the strategic management of
our country, then it might be worth our while to make
something special of this.
Where do we come from and where are we going? This, more
than ever, is the opportunity to be critical and to replan.
Firstly, this is the time for any modest person to become
aware of his or her Creator, because through Him is the
universe, the sun, the earth, the moon and the stars,
heavenly bodies whose regulated movement determine time, a
day, a night, summer, winter, autumn and spring. This
brings us to a millennium 42 days hence.
What is our nation's moral position? Crime figures,
corruption, lack of ethical standards and of a work ethic
are alarming to all of us. The causes of these are complex,
and stem from the last quarter of this century. As a matter
of priority the solutions lie in the first quarter of the
next century. Moral reconstruction and deeper religious
consciousness are not only the duty of the churches, but
the duty of each one of us. Apart from this spiritual need,
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 124 of 226
there is also the material need. The most immediate needs
of millions of people concern food, a roof over the head of
one's family and a job. It is about an economy which needs
to grow, and improving the quality of life.
Is South Africa's economy in tatters, as it was at the
beginning of the century after the end of the Boer War? Did
the revolution and the Cold War use the economy as a weapon
and then damage it? It does not matter what the answers
are. The fact is that a multitude of us are claiming
consolidation of change in the form of greater hope and for
material advantages, otherwise instability will follow.
In the coming century we do not only have to try and
devolve democracy to the communities, we should also link
economy and growth to communities where private enterprise
and intimate community spirit should set the pace for
developing the economy and creating jobs.]
I am only allowed six minutes by this democracy, so let me
switch over to the subject of stability, and the position
of my constituency.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 125 of 226
We Afrikaners are as proud of what we have achieved in this
country in this part of the millennium as we are aware of
the mistakes that we have made, and the role we have to
play in the future. In the latter half of this century, our
anxiety for survival brought us into conflict with the
larger South African population. The end of this century
has seen a miracle: a negotiated settlement, unique in the
world, in that full democracy has been introduced
peacefully.
Direct bilateral discussions between opposing sides brought
goodwill, mutual respect and an accord on Afrikaner selfdetermination. In practical terms, however, implementation
has been stalled by majoritarianism. Little was produced.
This is not only failing to fulfil a moral obligation, but
also the start of a new instability: an instability not
necessarily indicating a breakdown of security, but rather
a breakdown of mental preparedness to keep up the miracle.
The recent call for minority rights by academics has joined
the lone voice of reason by my party over the last five
years of this century on the subject. The legitimate
process of democratisation has produced a minority, with
all the classic perceptions of vulnerability. With other
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 126 of 226
minorities, it claims the full spectrum of human rights and
collective rights. Stability in our country is determined
by the minds of all its people. We need to address this
concept early in the new millennium in a way that will add
an African dimension to our democratic dispensation by
accommodating the communal way of living as well as the
role of traditional leaders of our indigenous groups.
In conclusion, one more subject: the millennium will
hopefully see new party-political dispensations based not
only on the divisions of the past, such as liberation and
conflict, but more stable, moderate parties and alliances
based on real African issues. Also in Africa, there is a
need for new and wise leadership in this millennium, with
sound co-operation and mutual support. Properly handled and
led, Africa may see the biggest changes in the coming
century and millennium. It will need economic entrepreneurs
but above all, stability that will not only come through
peacekeeping operations. Like South Africa, it needs a
clear vision, strong leadership and an Africanisation of
democracy that will keep minorities and majorities happy,
and capture the loyalties of these people for their bigger
role.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 127 of 226
The quest for an appropriate formula of meeting the opposed
requirements of diverse elements sharing one common space
to live in will be a major issue that will determine the
stability in our continent and our country in this coming
millennium. It will not come by itself, we will have to
work for it. And let us not think that we are more clever
than Europe on this subject.
With the time at my disposal I could only deal with a few
priorities. [Time expired.]
Mr J H MOMBERG: Madam Speaker, Mr President, hon members,
it is indeed a great honour for me to take part in this
historic debate. I may not be the oldest member in this
House, but I doubt if there is anybody else who has had
such a diverse political career ... [Laughter]... having
grown up in a pro-German, pro-NP and pro-apartheid home,
and then envolving naturally into a proud member of the
ANC. Nobody else in this House has had Malan, Verwoerd,
Strijdom, Vorster, Botha, Zach de Beer, Denis Worrall,
Mandela and Mbeki as leaders, as I have. [Applause.] Nobody
else here can claim that he or she helped to dig Dr Malan's
grave as I did. [Laughter.]
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 128 of 226
I mention these facts to illustrate what a long and diverse
political road I have walked to my freedom. My own freedom
depended on the freedom of a nation in chains throughout
many centuries, and my own freedom was like a homecoming to
me. The definitive moment in my life came in 1989 when I
visited Lusaka to meet the ANC. That visit changed my whole
life. I think the hon the President will recall that
moment, as well as Comrade Steve Tshwete. I will never
forget how, when we left Lusaka, as we walked towards the
plane, Alfred Nzo put his hand on my shoulder and said:
``Goodbye, my brother. Look after our beautiful country.''
I was in tears, but I knew I was leaving my people.
[Interjections.]
I want to show my fellow Afrikaners that it is possible to
change our preconceived ideas and mindsets. The 20th
century is notorious for the policies of segregation and
apartheid. Stricter electoral and urban segregation was
enforced between whites and Africans. In the second half of
the 20th century the Afrikaner established measures
responsible for the policy of apartheid. All the
discriminatory and exploitative measures against South
Africans were intensified and also made applicable to the
coloureds and the Indians.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 129 of 226
Today we are standing on the threshold of the 21st century
and the new millennium. Looking at the political and social
transformation of the past 10 years, we cannot but be very
optimistic that the next century will be much better for
all 40 million people in our country. I am optimistic that
it will be more peaceful and that the common interest of
the entire population will be promoted, that elite groups
will never again succeed in promoting their sectional
interests at the expense of the majority. Our endeavours to
build our democracy and our nation must be inclusive of all
South Africans. Afrikaners must abandon their narrow-minded
leaders and those who claim to represent the interests of
Afrikaners, and accept the new country fully.
Daarom is die pogings van ons agb President om met
Afrikanerorgansisasies te skakel so lofwaardig. Die
Afrikaner moet tree vir tree oor die stroom van suspisie en
wantroue gelei word. Afrikaners is basies goeie mense wat
verkeerd gelei is. [Tussenwerpsels.] (Translation of
Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[That is why the efforts of our hon President to liaise
with Afrikaner organisations are so laudable. The Afrikaner
must, step by step, be led across the stream of suspicion
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 130 of 226
and distrust. Afrikaners are basically good people who have
been led wrongly. [Interjections.]]
Our challenge as Afrikaners lies in our own ability to stop
defining ourselves as a minority group. [Applause.] If we
are serious about realising a prosperous country we must be
a hardworking and committed collective. We must begin to
define ourselves as part of the bigger collective of South
Africans. Only then can we be honest when we face the
questioning looks in the eyes of our sons and daughters as
they ask us about our beliefs in the equality of man, unity
in our country and continent, and human dignity.
We must shed the last shackles that keep us from moving
into the new era. We must break down all the little laagers
that serve only to trap us in our history. We must break
down the bigger laagers which falsely want to make us part
of another continent in the northern hemisphere.
The boundaries and bounties of our generosity and
knowledge, skills and expertise, goodwill and love and cooperation and collaboration must end where the Atlantic,
Indian and Mediterranean seas touch the shores of Africa.
Our aim must be to build an Africa of basic human rights
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 131 of 226
and dignity, an Africa equipped to rise from the ashes of
colonial exploitation, an imperialist wreck preparing to
assert herself once more as a global leader.
Ten slotte wil ek my vereenselwig met daardie groot
Afrikaner, oom Beyers Naudé, wat geskryf het, en ek haal
aan:
As daar uit al die ellende, die onreg en die pyn van
apartheid vergifnis en versoening kan kom, dan het ek
hoop vir hierdie land.
Op grond van my geloofsoortuiging, my vertroue in God as
die bron van alle liefde, reg en versoening, en op grond
van my vertroue in die positiewe ontwikkeling in SuidAfrika, ag ek dit 'n voorreg om al my kragte te wy aan die
heropbou van hierdie gefolterde land van my. Suid-Afrika is
my geliefde land van hoop en belofte. Dit is ons land.
[Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[In conclusion I want to associate myself with that great
Afrikaner, Oom Beyers Naudé, who wrote, and I quote:
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 132 of 226
As daar uit al die ellende, die onreg en die pyn van
apartheid vergifnis en versoening kan kom, dan het ek hoop
vir hierdie land.
On the strength of my religious conviction, my trust in God
as the source of all love, right and reconciliation, and by
virtue of my confidence in positive developments in South
Africa, I consider it a privilege to devote all my energy
to the reconstruction of this tormented country of mine.
South Africa is my beloved country of hope and promise.
This is our country. [Applause.]]
Mnr P A MATTHEE: Mevrou die Speaker, dit is nie in die
geskiedenis vir baie mense beskore om 'n eeuwisseling te
beleef nie, en nog minder 'n millenniumwisseling. Wanneer
'n mens kom by so 'n mylpaal in die geskiedenis, word jy
opnuut bewus van die grootheid van die heelal, die
grootheid van die geskiedenis, die onbegryplike grootheid
en almag van ons Skepper teenoor jou eie kleinheid in
hierdie groot heelal wat sal voortgaan, of jy nou deel
daarvan is of nie.
Wanneer 'n mens terugkyk in die geskiedenis na die
millennium en selfs die eeu wat amper afgeloop is, en 'n
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 133 of 226
mens kyk vorentoe na die komende eeu, kom jy tot die besef
daar is min dinge waarvan jy seker kan wees. Ek kan net aan
drie dinge dink. Eerstens kan elkeen van ons wat vandag
hier sit seker daarvan wees dat nie een van ons die
volgende millennium of selfs die eeuwisseling sal beleef
nie. Tweedens, as 'n mens 'n gelowige is, kan jy seker wees
van die Almagtige God wat steeds in beheer is en sal bly
van die ganse heelal. En in die derde plek kan 'n mens
omtrent net seker wees van verandering.
Die mikroskyfie moet sekerlik die grootste uitvindsel van
die afgelope eeu wees. Die reusespronge waarmee dit die
ganse wêreld, maar ook ons daaglikse lewens verander het,
is ongelooflik. Aangedryf deur die voortsnellende
rekenaartegnologie, gaan die verandering steeds voort teen
'n tempo waarby dit soms moeilik is om by te hou. Die
Internet maak dit moontlik om inligting in 'n ommesientjie
na enige plek ter wêreld te versend of van enige plek in
die wêreld te ontvang, en om transaksies van miljarde rande
binne sekondes te beklink.
Wanneer ons kyk na ons kontinent, Afrika, en ons land, dan
is daar oneindig baie om voor dankbaar te wees en wat 'n
mens die gevoel van optimisme gee, maar daar is ook baie
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 134 of 226
wat 'n mens diep bekommer. Die voortslepende oorloë op ons
kontinent, die tragedie van 22 miljoen HIV-besmette mense
en die duisende wat as gevolg daarvan daagliks sterf, baie
van hulle in ons eie land, die uiterste armoede in groot
dele van Afrika en ook in ons eie land, die misdaadgolf wat
steeds oor ons land spoel en die duisende slagoffers
daarvan, is redes vir diepe kommer.
Die demokratiseringsproses in Afrika wat, ten spyte van
terugslae, steeds besig is om goed te vorder, is
verblydend. Tien jaar gelede was 38 van die 45 Afrikalande
eenpartystate. Vandag het meer as die helfte van hierdie
state reeds vrye verkiesings gehad. Die wonderwerk wat in
ons eie land plaasgevind het, wat die wêreld verstom het en
wat almal in hierdie land bevry het van die kettings van
die verlede, moet ons elke dag steeds inspireer. As wat
onmoontlik gelyk het, kon plaasvind onder die leiding van
leiers met 'n droom en 'n visie, dan kan daar geen probleem
of uitdaging in ons land wees wat te groot of onbereikbaar
is nie, solank as wat ons die leiers het wat die visie het
om hierdie land van ons te laat werk, en 'n beter en
veiliger lewe vir al ons mense te skep. Ons as verkose
verteenwoordigers van ons mense is daardie leiers in die
politiek.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 135 of 226
Elke patriotiese Suid-Afrikaner buite hierdie Raad behoort
egter ook leiers op hul onderskeie gebiede te wees met die
visie en die droom om ons land te maak werk in die belang
van, nie net elke Suid-Afrikaner nie, maar ook in belang
van die nageslagte wat by die volgende eeuwisseling 'n
terugblik sal gee na ons dade by hierdie
millenniumwisseling. Wanneer ons praat oor dade kan ek dit
nie beter sê as N P van Wyk Louw nie: (Translation of
Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Mr P A MATTHEE: Madam Speaker, in history it is not the
fate of many people to experience a turn of the century,
and even less a turn of the millennium. When one reaches
such a milestone in history one becomes aware once again of
the largeness of the universe, the largeness of history,
the incomprehensible largeness and power of our Creator as
opposed to one's own smallness in this large universe which
will continue, whether one is part of it or not.
When one looks back in history at the millennium and even
the century which has nearly elapsed, and one looks ahead
to the coming century one realises that there are few
things of which one can be certain. I can only think of
three things. Firstly, each of us sitting here today can be
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 136 of 226
certain that not one of us will experience the next
millennium or even the turn of the century. Secondly, if
one is a believer, one can be certain of the Almighty God
who is still and will remain in control of the entire
universe. And in the third place one can virtually only be
certain of change.
The microchip must certainly be the greatest discovery of
the past century. The giant leaps with which it has changed
the entire world, but also our daily lives, are incredible.
Driven by the rapidly advancing computer technology, the
change still continues at a tempo which is sometimes hard
to keep up with. The Internet makes it possible to send
information to any place in the world or receive
information from any place in the world in a second, and to
clinch transactions worth billions of rands within seconds.
When we look at our continent, Africa, and our country,
there are infinitely many things to be grateful for and
which give one a feeling of optimism, but there are also
many things which concern one deeply. The continuing wars
on our continent, the tragedy of 22 million HIV-infected
people and the thousands who consequently die daily, many
of them in our own country, the extreme poverty in large
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 137 of 226
parts of Africa and also in our own country, the crime wave
which is still engulfing our country and the thousands of
victims thereof, are reason for deep concern.
The process of democratisation in Africa which is still
progressing well despite setbacks, is heartening. Ten years
ago 38 of the 45 African countries were one-party states.
Today more than half of these states have already held free
elections. The miracle which happened in our own country,
which astounded the world and which liberated everyone in
this country from the chains of the past should still
inspire us daily. If that which seemed impossible could
happen under the leadership of leaders with a dream and a
vision, there can be no problem or challenge in our country
too great or unattainable, as long as we have the leaders
who have the vision to make this country of ours work, and
to create a better and safer life for all our people. We as
elected representatives of our people are those leaders in
politics.
However, every patriotic South African outside this Chamber
should also be a leader in their respective areas with the
vision and the dream to make our country work, not only in
the interests of each South African, but also in the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 138 of 226
interests of the generations to come who, at the turn of
the next century, will look back at our deeds at the turn
of this millennium. When we speak about deeds I cannot say
it better than N P van Wyk Louw:]
Ons moet insien dat die daad in die geskiedenis veel meer
omvat as die paar dinge skreeu, marsjeer en skiet of
woelig wees en stem. Die woord self is 'n daad, goed of
sleg. En die woord wat soos 'n sagte windjie kom, is
dikwels magtiger as dié wat soos donder slaan. Bid is 'n
daad. Stildink selfs is 'n daad wat magtig en
oorrompelend kan word. Die dade waarvan 'n volk bly lewe,
is oneindig in getal en veel meer ingewikkeld as wat 'n
enkele brein van een van ons kan vat.
To succeed in making our country work and to create a
better life for all our people in South Africa, it is of
vital importance for all of us sitting here, but also for
all our people, to realise and always to remember that
interdependence is a higher value than independence. I am
because you are and you are because I am. [Interjections.]
That is what I understand by ubuntu. That is what will
carry us through and make this country work.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 139 of 226
Een van die belangrikste eienskappe ... [Tyd verstreke.]
One of the most important characteristics ... [Time
expired.]]
Mrs P DE LILLE: Madam Speaker, hon Comrade President Thabo
Mbeki, Chairperson of the NCOP, premiers, as the millennium
draws to a close, I would like to dwell on a topic that all
people everywhere in the world can relate to, namely the
issue of peace. I do this in the spirit of the UN
declaration that declared the year 2000 as the
International Year of Culture and Peace.
When the Dalai Lama speaks in the Old Assembly chamber on 9
December 1999, he will speak on the topic ``The abolition
of war in the 21st century''. At the same time, I cannot
heed the Chinese call for noninterference, and must condemn
their continued and brutal occupation of Tibet.
Closer to home, President Mbeki said this morning that the
millennium of the African renaissance must be one of peace
and stability, and I agree with him. Currently, as I speak,
Media Action International, the International Red Cross and
other organisations are hosting an international conference
entitled ``Weapons of war, tools of peace'' for journalists
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 140 of 226
and other interested parties here in Cape Town. I myself
have just returned from Bosnia, where people are working
hard to establish lasting peace.
Therefore, internationally, there is this consciousness
that we need to live together and more harmoniously
wherever we are, irrespective of how much we differ with
each other in this much-hailed new millennium. The
question, however, is: What will our role as the entire
South African nation be in the creation of a peaceful
climate in our country, the subcontinent, the continent and
the world? A culture of peace dictates that we should all
become more skilful at creating peaceful conditions.
It is against this background that I want to question the
Government's R30 billion arms acquisition deal. One cannot
dispense peace through the barrel of a gun, whether that
gun is on a helicopter, a ship or a jet fighter. Many
experts believe that if South Africa invests heavily in
armaments that are more suitable for international warfare
than national security, it will fuel a regional arms race.
We have walked a long way in this country to freedom, and
have finally arrived at where the nation finds itself
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 141 of 226
today. Twice in 100 years, we have turned away from the
brink of total annihilation - during the South African War
and the liberation war. I call on the Cabinet to turn us
away from the destruction that it intends bringing upon us
and cancel the arms procurement deal. We have the
potential, the goodwill and the natural and human resources
to be the international benchmark with regard to human and
socioeconomic rights delivery. [Applause.]
The PREMIER OF THE NORTHERN CAPE (Mr E M Dipico): Madam
Speaker, Mr President, Deputy President, hon members, as we
approach the last days of this century, we will do so with
a sense of achievement and hope for the future. The future
holds enormous opportunities for our country and, indeed,
humanity. As we close the last chapter of this century,
which has been characterised by wars and many more moments
of human catastrophe, we will advance to the new millennium
full of hope and with renewed vigour and commitment.
Along with the many more moments of celebration across the
globe, humanity will also celebrate the bringing to an end
of one of the world's most inhuman systems, apartheid. That
our country has steered itself steadily, and is on course,
is largely due to the vision, sacrifice and dedication of
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 142 of 226
the men and women gathered here today and many others who
have since passed away. These heroes and heroines of our
struggle for peace, dignity and development gave their
lives to ensure that our children had a future.
The outstanding leadership and the fearless commitment to
the goals of nation-building and reconciliation championed
by the first President of the democratic republic of South
Africa, Comrade Nelson Mandela, are hailed across the world
as having shaped world events in a significant manner.
As the President observed in his opening speech to the
National Assembly in June this year, we are on course. Our
country is, indeed, well on its way to healing a thousand
wounds which it bled from for centuries. Our people
throughout the length and breadth of this land have
acknowledged the great advances and the many more efforts
being made by this Government and by the other spheres of
government.
They have thus mandated us to continue on this path for the
next five years into the new millennium, and we dare not
fail them. At the dawn of this century we can look back and
say: We have been able to lay a solid foundation for the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 143 of 226
prosperity of our country and our people. This Assembly of
the elected representatives of our people can surely attest
to the long road to progress we have to traverse. As we
welcome the new millennium, we do so with renewed hope for
the future of our children and our people.
The last few years of democratic rule in our country have
placed our country in an advantageous position. Not only
are we looking forward to the new millennium, but we are
also hopeful that it will usher in much more progress and
development not only for our country, but for the region
and, indeed, the entire continent.
One of the challenges that will continue to confront us in
the new millennium is the scourge of HIV/Aids. This
represents by far the greatest challenge to all of us. The
consequences of increased infection, especially among the
14 to 25 age groups, are too ghastly to contemplate.
Therefore, HIV/Aids remains the single, most important
threat to the enormous gains and achievements we have made
since the demise of the apartheid system. All role-players
and others in society must be actively mobilised to join
the brigade against HIV/Aids.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 144 of 226
In conclusion, let us together march into the new
millennium with renewed vigour and strength to defeat and
conquer the real enemies of our people. These include
crime, HIV/Aids, unemployment and poverty.
I want to say to the President that I left the province
with a message of hope from our indigenous people, the
Qoranas, the Namas, the Griquas and the San communities.
They are hopeful, having got their land back, that indeed
we can only succeed. They said that in real terms he was
correct: ``We are on course.'' [Applause.]
The MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Madam
Speaker, His Excellency the President, Mr Deputy President,
hon members, in his intervention this morning President
Mbeki decried the legacy of backwardness and impoverishment
which was bequeathed to successive generations of humanity
by various historical systems of governance. As we stand on
the brink of the new millennium, the world's ambivalent
quality of opulence existing side by side with abject
poverty, threatens to remain an enduring constant.
The negative implications operating in the era of global
society are starkly manifest in the whole of the developing
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 145 of 226
world. These are phenomena such as the inability of many
national economies to withstand the volatility in the
external environment, economic growth rates lacking
persistence and impressive economic growth rates not always
translating into a better life for all. It is these
phenomena which resulted in a situation in which five sixth
of the world population is expected to survive on 20% of
the world's gross national product.
The challenge facing us and the rest of the developing
world is to enhance our system of governance into an
effective countervail against the life-threatening elements
of globalisation. It must certainly have been with this in
mind that on 25 June 1999, the President, in this very
House, committed Government to the construction of a
people-centred society.
It is also against this backdrop that on 15 October 1999,
the Ministry for Provincial and Local Government met with
his good self and our nine provincial premiers and
established a forum, whose primary responsibility shall be
to ensure coherence in our system of governance. Our
collective outlook, as members of that forum, is anchored
on the interdependence and the overlapping responsibilities
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 146 of 226
of our three spheres of government. Not only will this
integrative approach confer coherence on our system of
governance, but it will also give us the possibility to
formulate national policy instruments, without which
sustainable development cannot be realised.
The commitment to work for the promotion of good governance
and to improve the quality of the collective life of our
people, has brought our local government sphere
increasingly under the spotlight, given this sphere's
proximity to the people. We see local government as a key
player in tackling degeneration and poverty for, without
well-functioning municipalities in the cities, towns and
rural areas, our country's ability to sustain an economic
recovery and development programme will be greatly
impaired.
Our business of transforming local government structures
remains unfinished. This explains why many structures of
local government remain fragile. The current situation, in
which there is an asymmetry arising out of the old
configuration of municipal boundaries, requires new
solutions, including the redrawing of municipal boundaries.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 147 of 226
We want to create nonracial governments which are able to
reduce poverty and sustain economic growth. It is this, our
deracialising and integrative approach, which puts us in a
diametrically opposed relationship with those who spent
decades promoting a system that tried to enforce the
converse. Our opponents in this regard include decidedly
right-wing elements, who are increasingly finding a
political home in the hon Tony Leon's DP. [Laughter.]
Our democracy must yield a better life, especially for
those who bore the burden of wallowing in conditions of
extreme poverty. This is our approach to the issue of
governance. For this reason, our major cities are designing
comprehensive urban renewal strategies, and a rural
development strategy is being developed as a matter of
national priority.
Hon members will have noticed recent trends which indicate
that such multilateral institutions of governance as the
Southern African Development Community, the Organisation of
African Unity and the Commonwealth, are increasingly
bringing the issue of good governance at the centre of
their focus. As they look for innovative ways of
discharging their responsibility of promoting good
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 148 of 226
governance, the member nations of the Commonwealth have
elected to put our President at the apex of that endeavour.
The diminishing voice of our own isolationists has
suggested that by making himself available to play roles
such as this, the President is shirking the responsibility
of answering important parliamentary questions posed by the
opposition parties.
This so-called shirking of responsibility is ostensibly
impacting negatively on governance in our country. Because
they had no contact with the progressive world which could
not embrace a polecat such as they were, these
isolationists will not be able to appreciate the fact that
the boundaries of national interests are shifting every
day.
The overwhelming majority of our people expect the hon
President to continue steadfastly to discharge the
multiplicity of mutually beneficial responsibilities - the
responsibilities of leading the process of the
democratisation of our country, contributing his efforts
and imagination to the rebirth of our continent and giving
meaning to the same in the global era. Collective interests
are national interests.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 149 of 226
The ebbs and flows of globalisation notwithstanding, the
prospect of a better life for all our people has never been
brighter. [Applause.]
Mrs R A NDZANGA: Madam Speaker, President, Deputy
President, and hon members, we have come to the end of the
century and are approaching a new millennium.
A new Constitution was formed, in which the Bill of Rights
seemed to bring the hope that, truly, there would be
equality in this country. It is unfortunate that some of
the good things that are in the Bill of Rights are just
decorative, since many aspects still need to be unpacked
and implemented. For the UDM, major concerns remain, such
as women and children's rights, rural development and
poverty, and imbalances in our society.
I feel that we are talking about centuries and millenniums
when most of our people worry about surviving the present.
Should we not ask what is happening to our people, during
the course of this debate? How many will become victims of
violent crimes? How many will be raped in these few hours?
How many are hungry? How many wonder about election
promises unfulfilled ... [Interjections.] ... rights and
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 150 of 226
privileges unseen. It is also a pity that in this House,
when the truth is spoken, some resort to a defence
mechanism of howling, so that they do not have to hear the
truth. I hope that, next year, we will learn to listen to
the truth.[Interjections.]
The implementation of the Constitution is disregarding the
people by not encouraging their participation in this
process. That is the truth. I will try to give a few
examples of how consultation and sensitivity have
evaporated in the hallways of power. Take the issue of
housing. Are we building mere shelters? If the people were
consulted, they would inform the Government that a house
should be a home, that shelter against the weather is worth
little when you are exposed to criminality and immorality.
This is the way that the right of housing, enshrined in our
Constitution, is undone. That is the truth.
[Interjections.]
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mrs R A NDZANGA: Another issue is that of pensions in rural
areas. How can a government that allows an elderly person
to travel great distances on foot, sometimes on a wagon or
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 151 of 226
even in a wheelbarrow, for his or her pension, and on
arrival the person finds that the officials did not come,
claim to be sensitive to people, whilst there is not even
an indication of when they will receive their pension? We
must practise what we preach. [Interjections.] [Time
expired.] [Applause.]
Dr Z P JORDAN: Madame Speaker, Comrade President, Comrade
Deputy President, premiers, hon members and comrades, Afropessimism is the term used to express the view that Africa
has gone into deep decline over the past three decades.
That opinion is usually coupled with another, namely that
our continent has produced little of value for humanity,
let alone for its own people. Yet Africa, and what Africa
and its people have contributed to humanity, is evident in
virtually every part of the world.
After the opening up of Tutankhamen's tomb in the 1920s,
the art of ancient Egypt inspired a host of movements in
style and décor. Black African sculptors also inspired the
movement known as cubism amongst Western artists. Writers,
artists, painters and musicians from Africa, and of African
descent, have a continuing impact on contemporary
sensibilities and aesthetics. Since the 1920s, African and
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 152 of 226
African-American music has come to dominate the popular
idiom of the 20th century. Our African heritage is
comparable to that of other continents, yet African
achievements, ancient, medieval and modern, remain
unacknowledged, regrettably also on the African continent
itself.
One of the most telling indications of our achievements
this century is that 100 years ago, none of the leading
statesmen of Europe, Japan, or even the United States,
would have blushed at the term ``imperialist''. The term is
today regarded as a term of political abuse, and this
serves as an index of the manner in which the struggles of
the former colonial peoples have transformed the political
vocabulary of the 20th century.
At the turn of this century it appeared that modern
education might alienate African intellectuals from their
past, and create distance between them and the majority of
their people. However, as the African intelligentsia turned
away from the familiar symbolic universe of the family, the
clan and ethnic group, they adopted a more inclusive
concept, namely that of the nation, the continent and the
continent within an international community.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 153 of 226
At the end of the 20th century, the concerns of the African
intellectuals remain those that moved them at the turn of
the century. Today, as then, they continue to wrestle with
the challenge of securing Africa's sovereignty, the rights
of the African people and the sustenance of their dignity
as members of the human family in a rapidly changing world.
Their odyssey over the past hundred years posed an
agonising existential dilemma. The painful ambiguities of
modernity grew as urbanisation accelerated. In countries
such as ours, where racist policies of the not too distant
past sought to mercilessly exploit the labour power of the
oppressed black majority, while brutally excluding them
from the body politic, that anguish found its most poignant
expression in the works of our African artists, writers,
poets, musicians, sculptors and journalists.
We stand today at the threshold of a new millennium. The
realisation of Africa's potential requires the promotion of
political stability and peace as the preconditions for the
continent's economic growth and the prosperity of the
people. It will probably also require the cultivation of a
capacity for unsparing, rigorous introspection that
recognises both our achievements, as well as significant
underperformance in certain areas. We must insist on
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 154 of 226
tolerance, rooted in an appreciation that truth is elusive
and that it can only be sought in an environment of
untrammelled contestation and debate among differing
opinions.
The best of our African political tradition has
consequently chosen secularism and advocated pluralism, not
only to nurture diversity, but also for their intrinsic
value. Twentieth century African writers have often
portrayed the dilemma posed by modernity as tragic. How to
resolve this contemporary Riddle of the Sphinx was,
however, demonstrated by the generation of writers,
artists, sculptors, musicians, poets and playwrights who
came into their own immediately before and after the Second
World War.
Rather than wallowing in their alienation or seeking refuge
in the past, these African thinkers reintegrated themselves
with the common people by active engagement in the
political and social struggle for freedom, independence and
progress. As we approach the third millennium, that is the
object lesson the African intellectual must derive from our
20th-century experience. [Applause.]
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 155 of 226
Mrs J N VILAKAZI: Madam Speaker, Your Excellency the
President, hon Ministers, hon MECs, hon members, South
Africa was the first country to engage in negotiations, the
instrument of resolving a serious internal crisis. In this
way we chose the path of peace, we chose to talk, we chose
to co-operate, we chose to build and to prosper. Our
country has been blessed with a corps of leaders who showed
maturity, vision, courage, forgiveness and expansiveness of
spirit.
The role of Prince M G Buthelezi, Madiba, De Klerk and
President Thabo Mbeki has been to steer us towards
reconciliation, transparency and democracy. Since the 1994
elections the IFP and ANC have worked together. We have
kept our identities, we have had our differences, we have
agreed to disagree. More importantly, we focused on
national issues and priorities, and the bigger picture is
that we engaged in co-operative governance.
The IFP choose to develop cogovernance, we choose to be
close to the levels of power, to be a constructive
opposition, to modify the destructive adversarial type of
Westminster opposition. [Interjections.] We choose to go
into the new millennium as cobuilders, coplanners,
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 156 of 226
costrategists and cogovernors. The position adopted by the
IFP is a winning formula. It strengthens ubuntu, it
emphasises reconciliation, it shows that Africa has an
African solution, a solution which is comparable to the
best in the world. [Interjections.]
After having said this much, many challenges face us in the
year 2000, and they are numerous, but I would like to
mention just a few which are my concern, my party's concern
and everyone's concern. Firstly, street children; shelter
for them and rehabilitation programmes are very important.
Secondly, transformation in the language sector should be
seen and not heard. When isiZulu is being taught in some
places in New York, why can it not be done in South Africa,
my country? Thirdly, we have to raise the economy.
Unemployment is haunting us all and it is very painful. It
is difficult to relax while other people do not have a
plate of food in front of them.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I regret your time has expired,
hon member.
Mrs J N VILAKAZI: I wish all members a happy millennium and
a prosperous year 2000. [Applause.]
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 157 of 226
Mrs E N LUBIDLA: Madam Speaker, hon President, hon Deputy
President and hon members, throughout history each century
has brought along its own challenges for which humankind
had to find solutions. The 20th century was no exception.
This century saw the invention of the aircraft, the modern
radio, television, the microchip, the discovery of the
antibiotic, penicillin, which destroys bacteria, the
discovery of a vaccine against polio, the first heart
transplant operation and the cloning of a living organism.
These advances in science and technology did not only give
human beings the tools to cure and invent, but also gave us
the tools to kill. Nuclear weapons have become the
imperfect guardians of peace at the end of a century where
war has claimed untold millions of lives.
Many of the challenges we are about to face in the new
millennium are not new, but are challenges which have
arisen during the latter part of this century. As we
prepare to enter the 21st century, the gap between the West
and the rest and between rich and poor continues to grow. A
report by the United Nations Development Programme shows
that despite an increase in the consumption of goods and
services globally, over 1 million people, mostly in Africa,
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 158 of 226
lack the means to meet their most basic needs. This is one
of the realities we as Africans will face in the new
millennium.
Our task must be to find a solution for this
maldistribution of international resources and power. The
African continent must be mobilised to take her destiny
with her own hands by establishing systems of democratic
government and widening the political, social and economic
integration on the continent, to ensure rapid economic
growth that is based on meeting the basic needs of our
people.
On a national level the challenge confronting South
Africans in the new millennium is to deepen democratic,
social and economic transformation of our society. We will
have to find creative ways to increase the wealth base of
the country, in order to improve the quality of life of our
people. We must intensify the implementation of mergers to
ensure rapid economic growth, which will create jobs for
the unemployed and new job-seekers. A growing economy will
ensure that money is available to intensify existing
programmes aimed at providing food, security and basic
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 159 of 226
nutrition to the poor, housing, land reform, water supply,
sanitation and primary health care.
Another pressing challenge facing South Africans in the new
millennium is crime. Education on violence against women
and children is central to the fight against crime. Also
critical to the fight against crime is the campaign to weed
out criminal and corrupt elements in the criminal justice
system.
The struggles and sacrifices of our people over the past
centuries have presented our generation with a unique
opportunity to take South Africa into the new millennium.
It is our task to face the challenges of the new millennium
head on, and to find creative ways and solutions so as to
consolidate the foundation of our democracy for our future
generations.
May I take this opportunity to wish all hon members a happy
Christmas and a prosperous New Year. [Applause.]
Business suspended at 12:55 and resumed at 14:00.
Afternoon Sitting
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 160 of 226
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Chairperson, hon
President, Deputy President, premiers and members, the new
millennium is upon us. In some circles there is discussion
as to whether or not the next millennium really commences
in the year 2001 AD.
However, the sheer magic of 2000 is so strong that such
technicalities are easily brushed aside. Excitement will
mount as we approach the night of 31 December 1999. Where
will one be spending that night and the next few days? Will
it be at the Minnennium Bash on Robben Island or will one
be watching the flashing lights on Table Mountain, watching
the fireworks in the suburbs of Johannesburg, entranced by
the beating feet of Soweto musicians or mesmerised by the
South African Indian version of the Taj Mahal? In fact, it
does not matter where one will be. One thing is certain,
and that is that the new millennium brings new challenges
for all of us.
Consolidating democracy is for me the biggest challenge we
shall face in the new millennium. Having achieved a
political miracle and attained our freedom on 27 April
1994, our challenge, as we stand on the threshold of the
new millennium, is to achieve an economic miracle and
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 161 of 226
attain economic freedom for all our people. In this regard
I am reminded of a quote from President Lyndon Johnson, who
in 1965 proclaimed, and I quote:
Freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away scars of
centuries by saying that now you are free to go where you
want to and do as you desire and choose the leaders you
please. You do not take a person who for years has been
hobbled with chains and liberate him, bring him up to a
starting line of a race and then say, ``You are free to
compete with all the others,'' and justly believe that
you have been complete fair. It is not enough to open the
gates of opportunity; all citizens must have the ability
to walk through those gates.
Indeed, since the ANC Government came to power it has
occupied itself with enabling our citizens, especially the
previously disadvantaged people, to walk through those
gates. Government initiatives have led to the
implementation of a number of programmes, some of which
have been very successful. We have, in the past five years,
opened the doors that were previously closed to black South
Africans. Black economic empowerment, affirmative action,
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 162 of 226
employment equity, our procurement policy, education,
training and skills development come to mind here.
In the economic arena we have set South Africa on a more
decisive, potentially successful and globally competitive
course. With respect to delivery, we have provided
essential new services to millions of South Africans. In
the fields of housing, electricity, water,
telecommunications and welfare, action on an impressive
scale has transformed the quality of life of large numbers
of neglected and deprived South Africans. However, the goal
of economic growth and employment for all still eludes us.
The questions remain: How do we consolidate our democracy?
How do we move as rapidly as possible to create an economy
that will provide jobs, opportunities and an even better
life for the majority of our people?
While certain elements of our dispossession still persist,
we are actively engaged in efforts to turn the tide in our
favour, and from all indications we are heading in the
right direction. Through our collective efforts, this
millennium will be the millennium of the African or, as so
eloquently stated by our President, it will be the
millennium of the African renaissance. The challenge facing
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 163 of 226
progressive societies at the conclusion of this century is:
How do we create sustainable, progressive transformation
for the benefit of our dispossessed populations? How do we
create empowerment of those who need it most in order to
survive and prosper in this new dispensation?
However, can we honestly say that black economic
empowerment is happening in our country, when it results in
a pattern that satisfies the needs of those aspiring to be
better off in their disadvantaged group, when it promotes a
class of individuals who would have been the beneficiaries
of a deracialising South Africa in any case, when it
encourages our people to front for the whites to the
detriment of legitimate, aspirant black businesspeople? In
this regard, I think a big challenge facing us in the new
millennium is to make black economic empowerment a real
empowerment. In fact, we have to empower our people with
the same zeal and tenacity with which they were
disempowered.
Currently, it has become accepted that to eliminate poverty
small business development is crucial, because it is
inherently innovative and creates jobs in the context of
equalising opportunity. However, small business, as we all
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 164 of 226
know, still faces many problems, amongst which is the lack
of access to finance. I think, speaking honestly, that we
have not yet found a formula that would entice our banks to
bank the unbankable - those with no security, no
collateral, no record of owning money - the high-risk
category.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana):
Order! Hon Minister, your time has expired.
The DEPUTY MINISTER: I still have 43 seconds.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana):
Order! I am told you have 40 seconds. Can you round off,
hon Deputy Minister?
The DEPUTY MINISTER: Our banks will not bank them, even if
they have a business idea and a vision to make it work and
we, as the Government, are backing it up. What we have put
in place has not mobilised our banks to lend to this group
and I think the challenge is to find the right formula. The
challenge also is to get rural masses into the mainstream
of the economy. They do not aspire to being on the stock
exchange, but they also want economic freedom. Speeding the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 165 of 226
integrated rural strategies, I hope, will help us achieve
this objective.
In closing, let me say that until we have embraced all
this, we will forever misread the significant advances that
we have made, and we will forever be unable to apply these
advances to our current challenges. However, as we have
been able to demonstrate through surviving the most
abhorrent experiences, I think we shall all prevail. In
fact, the fact that I speak to members from this vantage
point is itself a testament to the triumphant spirit of our
people. [Applause.]
Mr M T MASUTHA: Mr Chairperson, Your Excellency the
President of the Republic of South Africa, comrades,
friends and colleagues, if we were to count the many
important achievements of the people of this country in the
current millennium, one that will always outshine the rest
is their own liberation through the demolition of the
erstwhile apartheid state and the substitution thereof with
a democratic state based on human rights values and in
which the Constitution reigns supreme.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 166 of 226
These human rights values are reflected in a Bill of Rights
which lays out a minimum flow of rights stretching from
first generation rights, which are civil and political,
right through to third generation rights such as the right
to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This
comprehensive approach to human rights is in line with
international human rights instruments in that it is based
on the recognition that human rights are indivisible and
interdependent. It is especially the second generation
rights, that is the socioeconomic rights enshrined in our
Bill of Rights, that reflect our indigenous value system
which has a strong socioeconomic base.
Ke nnete gore bagolwane ba rena ba re tlogeletše ditaola;
ga se ba le tšona badimong. Ge ba be ba re ruta mekgwa ya
botho, ka ge nnete-gona motho e le motho ka batho, ba be be
ba opile kgomo lenaka ge ba be ba re: ``Bana ba motho ba
ngwathelana hlogwana ya tšie.'' [Legofsi.] Ke ka fao
lebitla la tlala le bego le sa tsebje. Go ya ka setlwaedi
sa rena bathobaso, goba a ke re Maaferika ka kakaretšo, go
abelana seo re nago le sona e be e se bohlola. Ke ka fao go
bego go thwe dijo ke tšhila ya meno, gape go bile go thwe
go fa ke go fega, ka moso o tsoga o fegolla. [Legofsi.]
(Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 167 of 226
[Our ancestors have indeed bequeathed to us some fairly
meaningful social norms and values that they did not want
to carry to their graves. Of course, they were correct in
teaching us the basics of social relations by pointing out
that since no man is an island, siblings should share even
the minutest portion of what they have [Applause.] That is
why it has become customary to the Africans to believe that
there is no single grave that is known to hold any
individual who could have died of hunger. Sharing
everything that we have is indeed the hallmark of our
social approach, and that is not immoral. This is why we
are fond of saying that the food we eat is ultimately going
to contaminate our teeth, and that gifts are actually the
act of banking because in the hour of need one is able to
withdraw that which one has saved. [Applause.]]
Eka Kavanyisa ka 2, Tsalwa ra Timfanelo, xiyenge xa 27,
xiyengenyana xa 1, ka Vumbiwa ra Afrika Dzonga ku hlayeka
hi ndlela leyi:
(1)
Munhu un'wana na un'wana u na mfanelo yo kota ku
fikelela-
19 NOVEMBER 1999
(a)
PAGE 168 of 226
vutirheli bya nhlayiso wa rihanyu, ku katsa na
nhlayiso wa rihanyu hi tlhelo ro tswala;
(b)
ku kuma swakudya leswi swi eneleke na mati; na
(c)
nhlayiso wa vanhu ku katsa na, loko a nga koti
ku tihlayisa yena n'wini na vaundliwa va yena,
nhlayiso wa vanhu leri faneleke.
(Translation of Xitsonga paragraph follows.)
[In Chapter 2, Bill of Rights, section 27, subsection 1, of
the Constitution of South Africa, it is stated:
(1)
Everyone has the right to have access to -
(a)
health care services, including reproductive
health care;
(b)
sufficient food and water; and
(c)
social security, including, if they are unable
to support themselves and their dependants,
appropriate social assistance.]
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 169 of 226
It has been estimated by the World Health Organisation that
at least 10% of the world's population consists of people
with disabilities, which means that they constitute the
largest minority group in the world. Out of the many known
causes of disability, poverty maintains the lead. It is sad
that although most poverty-related causes of disability are
either preventable or reversible, ignorance and inadequate
or no provision of basic services such as health care,
undermine the chances of many people escaping disability
during their lifetime.
It is for this reason that most disabled people are born
and live in poverty and, indeed, die in poverty. The often
desperate situation of disabled people has won the hearts
of many sympathetic people who have either donated money,
goods and clothes to them, or even provided them with
shelter and other forms of support. This has resulted in
the birth and proliferation of many charity organisations,
initially through the churches and other religious
organisations, aimed at providing care to the poor and the
destitute. This, in turn, resulted in state intervention
through the passing of a plethora of social legislation
aimed at establishing and financing various social schemes
and services, including social security.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 170 of 226
The question that arises, however, is whether all these
measures have significantly reduced poverty or whether they
have merely helped to sustain people so that they just
survive within the poverty trend. This situation therefore
requires a new approach to addressing poverty. I share the
view held by many that poverty is not an accident, but the
intended or unintended consequences of ill-conceived social
and economic policies of the past. These have resulted in
the steady and uninterrupted widening of the gap between
those that have and those that do not have. It is for this
reason that an effective antidote to the poverty element
can only be found in the re-engineering of our social and
economic policies so as to widen the doors of our social
and economic system enough to accommodate not only a few,
but the majority of our people.
These ideals were at the core of the struggle of our people
for freedom, as reflected in the Freedom Charter. In its
preamble, for example, the following words appear:
We, the people of South Africa, declare for all our country
and the world to know that our country will never be
prosperous and free until all our people live in
brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 171 of 226
It is this notion of equalisation of opportunities that
motivated the United Nations General Assembly on 3 December
1982, when it adopted the world programme of action
concerning disabled persons. Equalisation of opportunities
is a central theme of the world programme of action and its
guiding philosophy. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Miss S RAJBALLY: Chair, our President, Deputy President,
Ministers, premiers and hon members, the time for change
and challenge has definitely come. Peace is another name
for purposeful living. South Africa has a complex history
of only 348 years and, since then right up to 1993, this
country's history has been a sad tale of apartheid,
exploitation, discrimination and human misery.
The first democratic election in April 1994 ended the rule
of the white minority and apartheid. Ever since then, South
Africa has embarked on a journey of social justice, peace
and progress. Consistent efforts to educate the mass of the
population in human values is absolutely necessary to
transform and enrich our people morally, socially,
culturally, economically and politically. One of the most
important priorities for the Government is to reduce
poverty and inequality. Poverty has resulted in the poor
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 172 of 226
being isolated from the institution of kinship and
community. Food insecurity, crowded homes, the lack of
access to safe and efficient sources of energy, the lack of
adequately paid and secure jobs, and the fragmentation of
family system is a huge challenge imposed on our
Government.
No doubt the Government is persevering to earnestly address
the health, housing, crime, education and unemployment
crises. Unfortunately the apartheid regime handed South
Africa to the new democratic Government severely damaged.
Therefore, redressing the cruel inequalities of the past is
a gradual process.
Our country is advancing in science and technology. Perhaps
we may be fortunate enough in the millennium to discover a
miraculous cure for Aids. It is estimated that almost 250
000 children are orphaned because their parents were killed
by Aids. The MF is appealing to families, friends,
neighbours and the community at large to foster these
orphaned children with love, care and time.
South Africa is cradled in the arms of crime. Every single
day women and children become victims of assault, murder
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 173 of 226
and rape. If serial rapists fail continuously in
rehabilitation, then the only logical solution is
castration. We women and children must protect ourselves
against the odds.
Over the past 30 years a computer-dependent world has been
conceived. The millennium bug incited much controversy and
fear. State-owned enterprises and institutions that provide
strategic infrastructure and other essential services have
had their critical systems monitored by the national Year
2000 Support Centre to avoid chaos at the beginning of the
millennium. These include the Health, Finance, Correctional
Services, State Expenditure and Communication departments.
The Y2K bug has taught us that a shared purpose and
understanding in life unites people. Experience is the best
university in the world. Therefore, South Africa must
journey into the new millennium by first learning valuable
lessons from World War I, World War II, the French
Revolution, the Gulf War, the Anglo-Boer War and from
Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Malcolm X, Martin Luther
King, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 174 of 226
The true meaning of democracy is participation in the
decision-making process. The MF has made an excellent
choice to align with the majority.[Applause.] And the MF is
proud to stroll into the millennium with the majority party
and to work in coexistence and co-operation in the best
interest of the people of South Africa. [Applause.] The MF
does not only want to receive benefits from the country,
but we want all citizens to be given the opportunity to
work for those benefits. Superficial practice of the
Constitution and basic human rights by leaders in the
position of authority in the social, economic and political
sectors, must be avoided at all costs. The MF, together
with the majority party, will soar into the millennium
hand-in-hand. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mr E P MOGALE: Mr Chairperson, Comrade President of the
Republic, Deputy President, le lekgotla le le tlhomphegang
[and this honourable House], most of the young people, and
of course many others in Southern Africa and the entire
continent, spent this century and part of the millennium
fighting, terrified, starved, enslaved and as refugees.
Many perished. Thousands were, and still are, crippled.
Vicious systems, colonialism, slavery, imperialism and
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 175 of 226
bestial dictators were unleashed on the people of the
continent.
The results were stunted growth or development by massive
destruction and drainage of resources. Despite all this,
solidarity and sacrifices continued. The rewards were
victory after victory. The most recent decisive victory for
Southern Africa and the entire continent was the liberation
of South Africa. It rekindled the hope of the African
people. We found ourselves at the forefront of the struggle
to pull Southern Africa and the continent out of poverty
and distorted development towards an African-driven
destiny.
The century is coming to an end with most African countries
having established governments of their own. We are
confronted by challenges which will dominate the next
century. Some problems are direct results of the colonial
legacy, and others are our own creation on the continent.
If we are to succeed in the next century, we must turn
things around. We must build up Southern Africa, and the
continent as a whole, as centres of production, as opposed
to mere consumers of finished products.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 176 of 226
We must also add value to our own abundant resources. We
must make the subcontinent, and the continent, a safe and
enjoyable tourist destination. We will have to build
massive infrastructure. Industrialising Southern Africa and
the continent will not only expand our economies, it will
also expand our markets, but this task will need massive
and diversified skills training. Illiteracy must be
eradicated.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana):
Order! Hon member, the level of noise is too high.
[Laughter.]
Mr E P MOGALE: The RDP we started in South Africa is needed
to underpin programmes tailored for the region and other
parts of the continent. To boost massive training,
initiatives such as an educational levy, bursary schemes
and educational loans are extremely important.
The next century will be marked by the ever-increasing
utilisation of science and technology. The creation of our
own technological experts and scientists in various fields
will be decisive in building a competitive economy and
joining the world as an equal partner. Science and
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 177 of 226
technology and massive technical training, among other
things, can facilitate the development of the region and
the continent. Education at all levels, preschool, formal
and others, must be accessible to all people to develop
their talents and productivity, and to empower them to
participate in the development and creation of wealth.
The next century will also require elaborate information
systems through both structures and technology such as
educative information, awareness information and even
entertainment. As we brace ourselves for the giant
socioeconomic stride in the next century, we must know that
we are facing the immediate threat of war and conflicts
across the continent, and the stronghold of poverty and
underdevelopment which will need to be conquered.
According to the recent report of the UN Food and
Agriculture Organisation, the world's most undernourished
areas are in the sub-Saharan region. Topping the list is
central Africa, second is Southern Africa and third is East
Africa. In the first few years of the next century we have
to tackle this. Areas of concern are health, population
growth, conflicts and wars. The population explosion and
sex education are still viewed with prejudiced eyes. We
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 178 of 226
must confront this head-on and combat Aids and related
issues.
Wars and conflict mean that the region and the continent
must be strong. It must strengthen organisations like the
SADC and the OAU. The next century must see the
disappearance of tyranny and dictatorship from the
continent. Democracy is not an invasion of a particular
country; it is a necessary outcome of human development.
There is no excuse for shunning democracy. What is more
important is the role played by all the sectors.
[Interjections.] Workers in our country are a good example
due to the role they are playing in various institutions
and forums, notably Nedlac, to deepen and widen democracy.
We expect the workers of the continent to unite in making a
contribution towards transforming the continent.
We are always hopeful that the future will be bright. In
the first quarter of the next century an average youth will
be well fed, informed, highly skilled, very productive and
belonging to the progressive party. An average woman will
be truly liberated, skilled, well informed and belonging to
a strong mass structure and a progressive party.
[Interjections.] An average child will be nourished, have
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 179 of 226
access to early education and more. In the middle of the
century we shall have an African parliament in one form or
another. [Laughter.]
Africa shall thrive. We are as confident as the well-known
French revolutionary, Comte de Mirabeau, and we are saying
what he said at the time. We are saying: ``Impossibility?
Never say that stupid word to me again.'' We are encouraged
by the African wisdom which says: Tloga-tloga e tloga
kgale; modisi wa kgomo o tswa nayo sakeng. This means that
victory is not realised at the end of the race, but is
determined at the beginning of the race. Thobela. Re tlo
fenya. [We shall overcome.] [Applause.]
Dr S E PHEKO: Chairperson, Mr President, my time is limited
due to other courtesy calls. At the beginning of this
millennium Africa was not a Third World with a Third World
economy. Africa was a First World continent with pomp and
glory, where Africans enjoyed a high standard of living and
created great civilisations. Africa, anciently called
Mother of Lands, provided leadership to this planet for
600 000 years in all spheres of endeavour. Moses was
educated in the highest institutions of learning in Africa.
The Greeks learned their mathematics and philosophy in
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 180 of 226
Africa. In turn, Greece became the cradle of European
civilisation.
Jesus Christ himself could not find a safer place for
asylum than among the Africans on this continent. The
famous emperor of the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar,
remarking on Africa's then powerful place in the world,
said: ``Ex Africa semper aliquid novi''. [Interjections.]
It was the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism which
destroyed and underdeveloped Africa. This was initially
made possible by the so-called European renaissance. The
authors of this renaissance in 1400 used the compass and
gunpowder, Chinese inventions, to loot the wealth of Africa
and exploit her labour and raw materials.
For the next millennium, the primary mission of the African
people is to restore Africa to her glory through PanAfricanism. Pan-Africanism demands that the riches of
Africa be used for the benefit, upliftment and enjoyment of
the African people. Pan Africanism is a system of equitably
sharing food, clothing, homes, education, health care,
wealth, land, work, security of life and happiness. PanAfricanism is the privilege of the African people to love
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 181 of 226
themselves and to give their way of life respect and
preference.
I see I am running out of time. [Interjections.] We shall
continue to preach in our political life and condemn
political thuggery. We shall also continue to ask for and
demand the release of all freedom fighters in this country,
because the United Nations declared apartheid a crime
against humanity and, by not releasing all political
fighters, we are saying that the African people are
excluded when we are talking about a crime against
humanity.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana):
Order! On that note hon member, your time has expired.
Dr S E PHEKO: Our country must do away with colonial names
in order to acquire a genuine identity. [Interjections.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): Hon
member, your time has expired!
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 182 of 226
Dr S E PHEKO: It would be ludicrous to have a liberated
country called Rhodesia or New Rhodesia, yet this is the
colonial paradox in this country. [Applause.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Mr M L Mushwana): Hon
member, your time has expired! I hope this is not a protest
by the PAC.
Mr B WILLEM: Mr Chairperson, hon President and Deputy
President, and hon MECs who are here today, I am the first
person to address this House from down here. [Laughter.]
The people who have addressed this House this morning have
done so from the podium, and I think this is a challenge
for the new millennium. [Interjections.]
As we face the new millennium, ours is a challenge issued
from the voices of the people who are asserting themselves
more and more, particularly in structures of civil society.
It has been a long and bitter struggle for disabled people
of the world in general, and in South Africa in particular,
to be recognised as bona fide members of the human race. We
were cursed, brutally murdered, socially ostracised and
unfairly discriminated against by civil society under the
apartheid regime, but we were finally readmitted into
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 183 of 226
families under the ANC Government. However, many a country
still regards our plea for recognition as a minor
irritation, thus regarding our disability, which was not of
our own making, as, primarily, a health and welfare
problem.
The first decade of the new millennium will be the African
decade of disabled people. The present decade has raised a
lot of expectations on the part of disabled people around
the world. Owing to the different levels of economic
development, Africa is not mandated to significantly
implement programmes aimed at the improvement of the
quality of life of disabled people. In terms of the African
decade of disabled people, revised for the millennium,
Pafod will co-ordinate activities conducted by the
organisation throughout Africa.
We also follow on the OAU to revisit the African charter on
the rights of the child. In its implementation it is
discriminatory. This is said against the background that
disabled children are not benefiting from the provisions of
the African Child Rights Charter. In the spirit of the
African renaissance the OAU should take the lead and set
the precedent to ensure that the gains of the African
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 184 of 226
decade for the disabled are not reversed after the new
decade.
The assertion of political power by the ANC in 1994
dramatically turned things around for the disabled people
of this country. A new paradigm shift emerged, as a result
of which society as a whole was then obligated, legally and
otherwise, to adopt an approach that defined disability as
a developmental issue. Our new Constitution states without
equivocation that people are equal before the law.
Government is accordingly enjoined to create a conducive
environment for the rapid eradication of discrimination,
and the promotion of unconditional equal rights for all the
citizens of our country.
The Integrated National Disability Strategy, that is our
White Paper and the bible of the disabled people of this
country, states categorically and clearly that disabled
people are free under this Government. Before 1994
disability was regarded primarily as a health and welfare
issue. Since then we have come a long way. A fundamental
principle of our society is to reintegrate and accept
disabled people.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 185 of 226
The core challenge facing us demands from each of us in
this nation that we come together as one nation. There has
been enormous positive development for the disabled through
the Constitution and legislation. Discrimination based on
disability is specifically mentioned, and disabled people
are granted the right to be treated equally and to enjoy
the same rights as all other citizens.
The new Labour Relations Act is an important step in
addressing discrimination in the workplace. The Employment
Equity Act also advises employers to employ a certain
percentage of disabled people. The Promotion of Equality
and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Bill has recently
been introduced. This Bill aims at realising the objects
and the spirit of the Constitution with regard to equality
and unfair discrimination. I would like to conclude with a
quote from our President at a Disabled People of South
Africa national congress meeting in 1997:
Certainly Albie Sachs's limbs had been broken on that
fateful day but his soul, his heart, his integrity as a
member of the human race, and, more important, his belief
as a fighter for justice and everything which sets us apart
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 186 of 226
from the animal kingdom had not been broken. If anything,
it had been tempered in that experience.
[Time expired.] [Applause.]
Mr C AUCAMP: Chairperson, may I ask members to keep in mind
that this is not a farewell speech, and they must take me
seriously today. [Laughter.] May I, in the first instance,
thank the member of the PAC for requesting a general
amnesty. We are getting closer to each other. [Laughter.]
When we think about the millennium, we think about time. In
original Biblical Greek, there are mainly two words for
time. The one is khronos, which means time as on the clock
and a calendar. The other word is kairos, meaning the
decisive moment, the appropriate time, the right
opportunity. And what is the lesson from history? It is not
the khronoi that determine history, but the kairoi, not the
numerical factor of hours or minutes, dates or days, but
the decisive moments, very often not even timed or dated.
We do not even know the khronoi, the times and dates of the
most important events of history, the creation of mankind
and the coming of Christ.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 187 of 226
What does this say to us? What does it mean to us frail
human beings approaching the dawn of a new millennium?
Simply this: 1 January 2000 will change nothing. It will
come and go. The turn of the millennium will not change the
lives of our people, nor the destiny of our country. It is
a mere khronos, a date on a calendar. It is an important
date, of course. Just think of it. We stand at the end, not
of a year, a decade or a century, but of a thousand years,
a period in which civilisations came and went, not to
mention governments and political parties.
The turn of a millennium is an event which only three in 50
generations are privileged to witness. But still, it is
only a minute on a clock, a date on a calendar. The only
real hope for change is that, perhaps owing to the Y2K
factor, I will not have an overdraft any more. For the
rest, it will be the same world as on 31 December.
[Laughter.] There will be the same problems, perhaps a few
more headaches and hangovers.
What is the moral of the story? Do not bargain on a date,
not even this one, which happens once in 70 lifetimes, to
change the fate of our peoples, our country, our continent.
We must not be overheated in our expectations. January 1
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 188 of 226
will not determine history, nor change the fate of our
peoples. God determines history, He turns khronoi into
kairoi, hours and dates into opportunities. But, very
importantly, He uses mankind, the crown of His creation. In
doing so, He bestows responsibility on our shoulders.
Wat is hierdie verantwoordelikhede wat ons land in die
gesig staar? Wat is die verantwoordelikhede vir ons as
verkose verteenwoordigers in Suid-Afrika? Wat kan ons doen
om die tye wat kom, ook die nuwe millennium, te verander in
geleenthede en momente wat ware vrede en voorspoed vir al
die volke in hierdie land kan bring, wat van die nuwe eeu
iets anders kan maak as die vorige? Daar is soveel
perspektiewe, ek kan vandag maar net op een daarvan fokus.
Ons Afrikanerskrywers het die 19de eeu beskryf as die eeu
van onreg. Ander volke beskryf die 20ste eeu as die eeu van
verdrukking en bevryding. Kom ons laat reg geskied aan die
21ste eeu as die eeu van verskeidenheid in harmonie. Die
geheim om die geleenthede wat voor ons lê te kan aangryp
vir 'n beter lewe vir ons almal is dat ons die vereensaming
van die mens, die identiteitloosheid in die vaal massa, sal
raaksien, dat ons in ons staatkundige bestel sal
akkommodeer wat staatswetenskaplikes soos Geyser en
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 189 of 226
Moynihan beskryf as die toenemende ervaring van
groepsidentiteit.
Die wending van die eeu bring die seine dat blote
individualisme van die postmodernisme reeds besig is om
plek te maak vir die diep gevoelde behoefte van, ``ek
behoort aan ...''. Deur die eeue, oor millenniums heen, het
stelsels en ideologieë gekom en gegaan, maar van die
vroegste tye af het die mees natuurlike binding van
volksidentiteit gebly.
Die Afrikaner staan gereed vir sy onmisbare bydrae om van
die khronos van die nuwe millenium 'n kairos te maak vir
Suid-Afrika en al sy volke. Die sinvolle staatkundige
akkommodasie van ons historiese, kulturele en
lewensbeskoulike identiteit sal die sleutel daartoe wees.
Mag elkeen van ons die nuwe millennium ingaan met 'n diepe
besef van ons verantwoordelikheid.
Ja, die koms van die nuwe millennium is water op die meule
van ... [Tyd verstreke.] [Applous.] (Translation of
Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 190 of 226
[What are these responsibilities that our country faces?
What are our responsibilities as elected representatives in
South Africa? What can we do to change the times to come,
also the new millennium, into opportunities and moments
that can bring true peace and prosperity to all the peoples
of this country, that can turn the new era into something
different from the previous one? There are so many
perspectives, today I can focus on only one of them.
Our Afrikaner writers described the 19th century as the
century of injustice. Other peoples describe the 20th
century as the century of oppression and liberation. Let us
do justice to the 21st century as the century of diversity
in harmony. The secret of seizing future opportunities for
a better life for all of us is that we shall notice the
increasing loneliness of humankind, of the identitylessness
of the colourless masses, that we, in our constitutional
dispensation, will accommodate what political scientists
such as Geyser and Moynihan describe as being the
increasing experience of group identity.
The turn of the century is signalling that the mere
individualism of postmodernism is already in the process of
making way for the deep-seated need to feel, ``I belong to
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 191 of 226
...''. Through the centuries, over millennia, systems and
ideologies have come and gone, but from the earliest times
the most natural bond of national identity remained.
The Afrikaner is ready to make his indispensable
contribution to change the khronos of the new millennium
into a kairos for South Africa and all its peoples. The
meaningful constitutional accommodation of our historical,
cultural and philosophical identity will be the key to
that. May each one of us enter the new millennium with a
deep realisation of our responsibility.
Yes, the dawning of the new millennium is grist to the mill
of ... [Time expired.] [Applause.]]
Mr M RAMGOBIN: Chairperson, Mr President, Mr Deputy
President and fellow South Africans, as a dedication to my
late son Kush and to all those who received in giving up
their all in South Africa, I want to share these sentiments
with my fellow South Africans.
On this, the last day of our Parliament in this millennium,
from the southern tip of Africa, we acknowledge that the
21st century will be Africa's century and that our
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 192 of 226
unflinching contributions to make it a success will always
be our ubuntu, our ahimsa [nonviolence], our satyagraha
[nonviolent resistance] and our sarvodaya [economic and
social development]. For the religious Christian, we are on
the threshold of a period of a thousand years of Christ's
long-awaited reign upon earth. This is, for me, a paradox.
Ironically, it was here, in the Cape of Good Hope, in this
millennium, that people pretending to be the purveyors of
Christian civilisation pursued a course of action based on
the notion that they were chosen by God to be the gods of
other men and women. The history of our country is well
known. What needs to be emphasised is our own responses to
what became of us, especially since 1899. Yes, our people,
before then, had made choices. Among other things, they
raised their shields and spears. But, over and above all
this, based on ubuntu, which means ``I am because you
are'', imbued with the teachings of Christ and a deep sense
of self-respect, our leaders gave rise to the African
National Congress in 1912.
Inspired by the precepts in the Bhagavad-Gita and the
Sermon on the Mount by Jesus Christ, Mahatma Ghandi gave to
the world, from Natal, ahimsa, satyagraha and sarvodaya in
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 193 of 226
1906. Over the years, the ANC and its allies became the
custodians of the values in the Bible and the BhagavadGita, and declared that South Africa belonged to all who
lived in it.
We became both the custodians and the symbols of a value
system based on justice, leading to us taking power in 1994
through the ballot box. Against this glimpse of our past
now that we are in power, what are the challenges facing us
in the ANC and South Africans generally. The principle that
South Africa belongs to all who live in it is based on a
deep spiritual base of ``I am because you are''. Now we
have to make our country livable for all who live in it.
This has to be the choice for us in South Africa for the
next century. All the institutions - we in the ANC, the
churches, business, labour and Government - have to
urgently redefine our respective and collective roles to
assume for us all a just, peaceful and sustainable future.
The covenant amongst us, which is written in the preamble
to our Constitution, will remain mere words if we fail to
garner into action the moral impetus of our people. South
Africans, between 1990 and 1994, became the instruments of
peace and reconciliation. Whether we are atheists,
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 194 of 226
agnostics or believers, all of us pioneered in our own
unique way the success of reconciliation. Now it is our
responsibility to be the instruments of God and for God's
justice. For some we are born in the image of God, for
others we are because others are, yet for many more the one
spirit is in all and all are in the one spirit.
With the might of these beliefs we have to ensure that in
the next millennium no individual or community will live by
holding itself apart from the community of others. Human
experience has proved that any such attempts under false
ideas of greatness, policy, riches, holiness or economic
power result in the disaster of secluding one. We in the
ANC are seized with the moral principle, and because we are
in power, we do not want to even impute that we have the
monopoly of truth. However, if South Africans are convinced
that this moral principle is correct, then it is our duty
to be the instruments of God's justice on all levels of
society today and into the next millennium.
Outside the moral liberation of a few ANC members, we
remain committed to honouring and safeguarding human
dignity and constructive mediation between individual
freedom and collective action. This we do to assure the
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 195 of 226
sociopolitical, economic and ecological integrity of the
country's people. This we will continue to do, taking not
only South Africans into the next millennium, but God
willing, sharing this as the foundations of the African
renaissance. I believe it is because of this commitment
that the ANC is the only guiding institution in South
Africa with whom business will talk, with whom labour will
talk and with whom even the religious community will
dialogue.
We are saying that to our knowledge mere laws, restrictions
and conventions alone cannot achieve a better social order.
We require another commitment. Having gotten the ethical
mandate to rule South Africa and to put in place a society
based on the revolutionary ethic of democracy, economic
justice and transparency, South Africa now demands the
collaboration and coresponsibility of all to engage in
programmes creatively. Let us walk together into the next
millennium in a spirit of fellowship, and not with
acrimonious patronages, posturings, condemnations, fear and
a holier-than-thou attitude. I am sure that in the spirit
of patriotism, our shared ethic demands our struggle to end
bribery, crime and corruption. Let us all identify these
evils and fight them together. On the basis of the same
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 196 of 226
ethic, let us fight and struggle against the crimes
committed against our womenfolk and our children. Let us
declare that the dictum handed to the world by Europe every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost - has
no moral or ethical value. [Time expired.]
Mr M A MANGENA: Mr Chairperson, Mr President, hon members,
time is inherent and fundamental in the universe. The
orbiting of electrons around nuclei in atoms is time
precise. The beating of our hearts at given specified
periods, our births and our deaths are connected to the
number of times our hearts beat. With every beat we get
older and we shuffle inexorably towards our individual
graves. The rotation of the earth and its orbiting around
the sun, give us days and nights, seasons and years. Of
course, the expanding of the universe and the burning out
of our sun, which will one day lead to the end of life on
our planet, are all time-bound and time-connected.
The chronology of time, however, and the naming of epochs
are not determined by nature. Human beings, more often than
not basing them on religious happenings, such as the birth
of Jesus Christ, the birth of the prophet Mohammed and
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 197 of 226
other such figures in other religions of the world, give us
the different chronologies that we now have in the world.
The end of the millennium that we are fussing about so much
in the Christian calender, is a nonevent for other peoples
of the world who are following different calendars. The
lives of people, and therefore their histories, are not
measured in decades or centuries. They are continuous. At
midnight on 31 December 1999, when the changeover happens,
the molecules in our bodies will not behave any
differently, nor will our hearts pump any differently.
However, life would be dull, boring and perhaps even
confusing, if we did not break the time into quantities
that we could label as epochs. We are therefore fully
justified to fuss about the fact that we will be changing
from 1900s to 2000s when we write dates. We are prudent to
use that as an excuse to take stock of our condition and to
dream about the future.
After more than four centuries of colonialism, wars of
resistance, oppression, discrimination, strife and pain, we
finish this century as a politically liberated people. We
seem all set to build a more equal and just society, where
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 198 of 226
the colour of skin of people, the language they speak at
home, their religion or the region they come from, will not
be points of reference in as far as their rights and
opportunities are concerned. But that open society will not
be realised as long as the squalor of the shacks of
Crossroads, of Alexandra, of Inanda, of Cato Manor are
reserved only for people of a particular colour in our
society; as long as one colour flies and drives while
another colour is packed like sardines into kombis, buses
and trains; as long as one colour hires and fires and
accumulates profits while another colour can only survive
from one day to the next by selling its labour. Our
challenge in the new millennium is to eradicate the
determination of class by race. Then, and only then, will
our children and their children live in a happy and
flourishing democracy.
We move into a new century at a time when the supremacy of
capitalism, as a world economic and political system, is
almost unchallenged. The consequences of that are that the
poor and marginal countries of the world, particularly the
former colonies in Africa, Asia and South America are at
the mercy of the more affluent capitalist countries. The
much talked about globalisation actually means the virtual
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 199 of 226
economic annexation of the developing countries by the
economic giants of the West and Japan. The supremacy of
capitalism is facilitated by an explosion of production and
consumption at a scale never seen before.
The harnessing of science and technology in the production
of goods and services, is ironically producing mass
unemployment all over the world. We are yet to see what the
contradictions of phenomenal wealth accumulation, on the
one hand, and the generation of mass poverty, on the other,
will produce. Our struggle to create a more equal and just
society in our country will have to be waged within this
international milieu of gross inequality and major
contradiction. [Time expired.] [Applause.]
Ms S N NTLABATI: Chairperson, President and Deputy
President, today it is 46 days to the 21st century. I am
taking this millennium debate to the basics, to talk about
a priority which overrides all other priorities - a
priority which, if we do not have, then no other priority
can be achieved. That is health.
Perhaps we could have a public health system in which, as
Africans, in the new millennium, one day, be it by the year
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 200 of 226
2020 or 2015, we shall be talking about wellness, not about
diseases - an Africa in which there will be sufficient
knowledge of health issues and health issues will no longer
be a terrain of doctors and nurses.
At the turn of the century, our African experience was the
one recorded and the one which was told around fires. There
were no statistics on hypertension. Those are diseases of
affluence. There were no statistics on teenage pregnancy.
Sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis were not known.
They were known as diseases of the sailors. Prostitution
was known as a vice.
It is true, technology was underdeveloped. The extended
family looked after orphans. There was a vast knowledge of
herbs in Africa. Societies were able to eliminate the
quacks in the traditional systems of healing. There was a
vast knowledge of health promotion and preventative
medicines, which were given to us by grandmothers in the
family unit but, unfortunately, we never modernised them.
We never gave them a scientific boost.
In the forties, in this century, in KwaZulu-Natal, a
primary health care approach was developed by Sydney Clarke
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 201 of 226
in Pongola. However, now we say that it was an Alma-Ata
issue of 1978 in Russia, whereas we are the ones who began
it. It is unfortunate that Sydney Clarke in Pongola had to
stop all that he was doing when the government of 1948 took
over. He had to stop because it was people-centred, or so
they said.
We have benefited from the advent of antibiotics and
sulphonamides, but they are not really ours. For a whole
century in our health system, we valued Western people Hippocrates, Florence Nightingale. When the pledges on
oaths of the professionals were made, they were based on
Florence Nightingale's.
My practical challenge in the new millennium is that we
should let the health system develop professional oaths
which are centred around the names of our own doctors, like
Dr J S Moroka, who were primary health care practitioners.
We also have people like Cecilia Makhiwane in the Eastern
Cape who were our first nurses. Dorah Nginza, in Port
Elizabeth, was a traditional midwife. Let us have their
names in the books in the libraries and in our health
system.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 202 of 226
Let us modernise the traditional system as it was done in
China, so that one day, not very long from now, before the
middle of the coming millennium, we must have the best of
both of these systems - the Western system of medicine and
the traditional system of medicine. Let us, at the
beginning of this new century, go back to our family-based
health approaches, and not override the wisdom of our aged
people regarding issues of ill health - that is, the
basics. Let us have the communities looking after
themselves. We should modernise and adapt our sexual
education. We should eradicate backstreet abortions, and
take patients to hospitals to ensure that nobody dies.
Let us have proper democratic states where citizens are
involved in public affairs. When we celebrate on the night
of 31 December 1999, let us celebrate, thinking that within
the first week of January or February we shall be having
health forums in our communities as part of our new year's
resolutions, in order for people to look after their own
health.
We are saying, with regard to drugs and research, that in
the new millennium the challenge should be to build
partnerships, not with European countries, but across the
Limpopo, around the Nile and around the Congo. This
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 203 of 226
continent is rich in forests and shrubs. [Time expired.]
[Applause.]
Mr B A D MARTINS: Madam Chairperson, Your Excellencies
President Thabo Mbeki and Deputy President Jacob Zuma,
premiers, hon members, in the endeavour to make sense of
the competing views of this century drawing to a close, we
have heard words of interposition and nullification which
bear ample testimony to the fact that to comment on what
are nodal or high-water mark periods of the 20th century
is, at best, a daring enterprise, for it has as many
perceptive adherents as there are fluent critics.
The century as a whole, the prudent listener and observer
would have noted, belongs to no one, yet everyone owns a
part of it, has an interest in it and has an opinion about
it. This is not surprising, because the most important
shifts of thought and activity wherein basic aspects of
human life underwent fundamental change occurred in the
20th century, and collectively these changes have
accumulated into the greatest one-century period of change
in human history.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 204 of 226
Most conventional histories of the 20th century, however,
obscure this fact with event-charged narratives that propel
the reader or listener from the platteland trenches of the
Anglo-Boer War to the trenches of the First World War,
through the hardships of the Depression in the 1930s, the
grim struggle of the Second World War and the nail-biting
decades of the Cold War. In contrast, the materialist
interpretation of history sees human existence as a process
of social development. In so doing, it constructs a history
of the century that puts broad currents of people-driven
change at the forefront, and thereby tells us how our lives
got to be the way they are today.
However, most histories, whether from an idealist or
historical-materialist perspective, typically begin with
politics, proceed to social and economic conditions and end
with culture. I submit that this sequence constitutes an
implicit evaluation of the subject matter, and one that
many historians would defend openly. World circumstances at
the close of the 20th century in general, and the
circumstances of post-1994 South Africa in particular,
should, however, call this convention into question.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 205 of 226
As a nation in general, we have paid scant tribute to the
role of South African artists, poets, writers over this
past century in making South Africa what it is today, and I
should like to add and note sadly that there has been even
less tribute paid to the role that black cultural workers
played in the anti-apartheid struggle.
As an infant democracy and as a nation rich in diversity,
it will be incumbent upon us to utilise fully the tapestry
of our rich heritage in order for us to define our cultural
and national identity. In so doing, we will celebrate our
achievements, redress past inequities and deepen our
understanding of South African society. An important aspect
of our cultural redefinition in the next millennium should
be premised on the investment that we put into the youth as
a cornerstone of our country's future.
The majority of South African black youths have suffered
years of neglect under apartheid resulting in material,
educational and cultural impoverishment. Substantial
resources must now be committed to the needs of young
people. Arts and culture can play a central role, because
through the arts young people are able to express
themselves in ways that will simultaneously enhance their
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 206 of 226
intellectual abilities and develop essential life-skills.
Also, apartheid prevented most Africans from having access
to science and technology as an enabling resource for
development. A consequence of this has been the
marginalisation of indigenous knowledge and technology in
Western-orientated institutions of learning, scientific
practice and production.
Furthermore, we face the challenge of affirming indigenous
culture, intellectual, scientific and technological
knowledge systems of South Africa and Africa in the quest
to develop a common consciousness and pride among the
people of Africa in their collective cultural and
scientific heritage. We have begun this journey. We are on
course, but there is still a long stretch of road ahead.
[Applause.]
Mr K D S DURR: Chairperson, the President and colleagues,
it is an historical fact that the millennium marks the
birth, the life and the times of a child who was born in
Bethlehem upon a midnight clear. But the structure of this
Parliament, too, is a by-product of that servant's life.
The Judaeo-Christian faith gave birth to liberty,
constitutional republics, the separation of powers, limited
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 207 of 226
government, freedom of conscience, and so much else that
came from the Reformation.
Other consequences that members have referred to were the
elevation of women from second-class status and the
abolition of slavery, cannibalism, child sacrifice, widow
burning and so much else. Currently in South Africa we so
often dwell upon our failures, and perhaps it is right that
we should be self-critical, but at the close of this
millennium we can also look back at high achievements that
should inspire us to greater heights in the years ahead.
When one reflects upon these achievements, often borne in
great adversity, upon our strengths and assets, upon what
is good in our country and positive, including the fact
that we are now a united nation, then South Africa begins
to look like a completely different proposition. The best
way to end the tyranny of the mind-set of Afro-pessimism
and to break the cycle of poverty is for us to succeed and
to continue to succeed together. Let us have the confidence
of knowing that whilst conflicts remain, so do the homegrown, tried and tested mechanisms for conflict resolution,
which will perhaps be South Africa's greatest gift to
Africa in the years ahead.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 208 of 226
I know the President particularly likes poetry, so in
closing I would like to read a poem by Sir Owen Seaman
which I found in Ouma Smuts's wartime diary that I thought
might inspire him. It certainly inspired me. I quote:
Ye that hath faith to look with fearless eyes beyond the
tragedy of a world of strife
And trust that out of night and death shall rise the dawn
of ampler life,
Rejoice, whatever anguish rend your heart, that God has
given you for a priceless dower
To live in these great times and have your part in
freedom's crowning hour
That you may tell your sons who see the light high in the
heavens their heritage to take.
I saw the power of darkness put to flight. I saw the
morning break.
So, with that, let us rededicate ourselves to our country.
Let us make reconciliation, reconstruction and education
the habits of a lifetime. Let us enter this new dawn with
hope and optimism in the millennium year. May God bless
South Africa. [Applause.]
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 209 of 226
Mnr J J DOWRY: Mevrou die Voorsitter, agb President,
Adjunkpresident en premiers, die oorgang na die nuwe
millennium moenie net 'n skuif op die kalender wees nie;
ons moet beslis ook in ons harte en denke na 'n nuwe
tydperk oorskakel. Agter ons lê 'n tyd van swaarkry wat so
erg was dat die digter Adam Small dit met dobbelgeluk
vergelyk het toe hy, met verwysing na die mense op die
Kaapse Vlakte, gesê het:
Die Here het gaskommel
en die dice het verkeerd gaval vi' ons.
Dié tydperk moet ons omskep in een van menswaardigheid. Ons
moet die skuif maak van eksklusiwiteit na inklusiwiteit en
van negatiwiteit na positiwiteit. Ons teorieë en
beplannings moet praktiese beslag kry en 'n verskil maak
aan mense se daaglikse lewens. Mense het in die millennium
wat nou tot 'n einde kom terugslae en teleurstellings
beleef, maar in die jongste verlede het ons ook talle mooi
gebeurtenisse ervaar. Daarom moet ons, soos Paul Kruger
gesê het, uit die verlede soek alles wat skoon en edel is
en die toekoms daarop bou. (Translation of Afrikaans
paragraphs follows.)
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 210 of 226
[Mr J J DOWRY: Madam Chair, hon President, Deputy President
and premiers, the transition to the new millennium should
not simply be a move on the calendar; we must definitely
also change over to a new period in our hearts and
thoughts. Behind us lies a time of suffering which was so
bad that the poet Adam Small compared it with the luck of
gambling when he said the following with reference to the
people on the Cape Flats:
Die Here het gaskommel
en die dice het verkeerd gaval vi' ons.
We must convert this period into one of human dignity. We
must make the move from exclusivity to inclusivity and from
negativism to positivism. Our theories and plans must
become established in practice and make a difference to
people's daily lives. In the course of the millennium which
is now coming to an end people experienced setbacks and
disappointments, but in the recent past we have also
experienced numerous promising events. For this reason we
must, as Paul Kruger said, seek from the past everything
that is beautiful and noble and build the future on that.]
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 211 of 226
Part of the beauty of the past is that we have very much
become part of the interdependent world of today and must,
therefore, find a working programme that is in broad terms
consistent with international trends and practices. On the
world trade front important developments with great
relevance to South Africa and the rest of our continent can
be expected.
Firstly, the Lomé Convention comes to an end next February,
which will lead to important negotiations on the future of
the relationship between Africa and Europe. To support the
idea of an African renaissance, African countries must
negotiate at the very least, transition periods for
European Union trade and aid benefits that will promote
Africa's agenda.
Secondly, the millennium round of multilateral trade
negotiations under the auspices of the World Trade
Organisation can be expected to continue for at least the
first three years of the new millennium. We in South
Africa, together with other developing African countries,
should therefore co-operate to consolidate our bargaining
position vis-à-vis the developed countries, to ensure that
we get maximum benefits, for example in the emerging
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 212 of 226
electronic commerce regime and international trade in
service.
We must also ensure that Africa gets its share of the
profits of the predicted 6% to 20% increase in world trade.
On the economic front the responsible way in which we
conduct our monetary and fiscal policies has not gone
unnoticed, but we also need other economic reforms,
including a selective review of labour laws and the
rightsizing of the mammoth public sector. The challenge
before our Government in the new millennium is to embark on
a programme of privatisation so that poverty can be
addressed in a more decisive way. We need a liberalised
market economy with a social conscience.
It is also of paramount importance to speed up access to
telecommunication facilities, both here and in the rest of
Africa. We must use even the remotest chance of wiping out
the gap between the rich and the poor countries. If we take
cognisance of the fact that presently 80% of the world's
population - of which the majority is from industrialising
countries - does not have access to telecommunication
facilities, and further, that it is predicted that 30% of
the world's economic growth and 40% of new employment will
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 213 of 226
soon be driven by information technology, then the
provision of such facilities has become a major challenge
in the next millennium. The use of modern technologies to
stimulate economic growth and social development has become
a major issue and should also top our agenda for the next
millennium.
Wanneer ons kinders in die nuwe millennium die beloofde
beter lewe ervaar, sal digters dalk Adam Small se woorde
soos volg kan herskryf: ``Die Here het weer sy `dice'
gegooi, en hierdie keer het dit vir ons reg geval!''
(Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[When our children experience the promised better life in
the new millennium, poets will perhaps be able to rewrite
Adam Small's words as follows: ``Die Here het weer sy dice
gegooi en hierdie keer het dit vir ons reg geval!'' [The
Lord threw his dice once again, and this time they fell
right for us!]
The MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY: Chairperson, hon
President, hon Deputy President, it is clear from this
debate that we live in challenging times. The new democracy
that we dreamed of and fought for is still so young, yet in
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 214 of 226
what seems the blink of an eye we enter a new age. Is it a
time of hope or fear? We in South Africa seem to be
continually addressing new challenges and have to draw on
new reserves of hope, wisdom and determination.
Fortunately, we are rich in those reserves.
This is a time of globalisation, as has become very clear
from virtually every speaker in this debate. Yet what is
the meaning of this and what does it hold for us in the
future? One of our strengths has been to probe and analyse
so that we know with what it is that we are dealing. This
has allowed us to distinguish perception and myth, the
ideological from the underlying social, economic and
political changes that are continuously occurring. In this
way we distinguish anxiety from the probable, and wishes
from the possible.
Globalisation is redolent with ideological content. For
many it is a panacea of progress, for others a cruel plot
against the poor and downtrodden. The former see no
destructive forces at work, while their wealth amasses at
unprecedented rates, and the latter vainly try to reverse
forces that are the workings of a powerful socioeconomic
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 215 of 226
system. These polar perceptions would be dangerous starting
points for an effective policy response to globalisation.
What is this globalisation if it is neither of the above?
It is surely not a simple set of forces, and neither is it
entirely new. In a sense, to say the world is global is a
trite proposition. There is a new essence that we seek in
the term ``globalisation''. It must surely be that we
increasingly experience our globe in a common real time.
This emerges as information technology links us; knowledge
of every type begins to flow so that we can know each other
instantaneously. As a result everything begins to move in a
more rapid way.
This movement of knowledge has powerfully inserted itself
into production processes so that they are now faster, more
precise, and respond to immense complexity in nanoseconds.
Surely it is this complex real-time interaction that is the
qualitatively new characteristic of globalisation, and it
cannot be reversed.
The opportunities are great in this new accessibility of
knowledge and in the ability to interact with all parts of
our economy and society, but the danger lies in the speed
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 216 of 226
of the process. To harness knowledge and to interact with
all parts of our own economies requires the capacity to do
so. Without infrastructure this is not possible. Without a
state that provides the governance conditions to respond to
and then utilise these developments, they will sweep past.
This is the danger of the marginalisation process. It is
more rapid than ever before and more difficult to break
from once it gains a foothold. Previously we experienced
more of a phenomenon of isolation, which is very different
from marginalisation. To be in the margin is to be part of,
but not in, the page. To be isolated is to have the option
of becoming part of that page.
Good governance is not about being a goody-two-shoes in
response to the so-called Washington consensus. It is about
dealing with real changes and the underlying economic
forces that shape our society. Those who think that good
governance is about pleasing the donors are wrong, and
those who think that it is a Washington consensus plot that
can be ignored are wrong.
Where do the problems and possibilities lie? In the great
surge of industrialisation we have seen since the middle of
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 217 of 226
last century, the process was largely fuelled in the
industrialised countries of the North through a process of
imperial domination. Following the anticolonial struggles,
some of these economies, including South Africa, developed
a significant industrial base behind a high tariff wall.
However in general, we still remain with a profound
structural imbalance within the world economy in the
process of industrialisation. It is on this that
globalisation now makes its rapid advances.
The opportunity is immense. In the South there remain vast
resources, great quantities of energy and human capacity.
In the North, which never had many resources in the first
place, they are now in the main exhausted and overutilised.
What is then possible is that the vast natural resources in
the South can be beneficiated and utilised. The possibility
exists for South Africa and the South in general to be the
new productive engine of the world. In a sense, production
will revert back to the South, where it was only three to
four centuries ago. The question is how this can be done
for the benefit of the world economy and not just the
fortunate few.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 218 of 226
What I have said may sound like an extravagant claim when
we consider our current position, but today in this debate
we look ahead and those that see further will go furthest.
There is little purpose in dreaming unless we can chart a
path forward. Let me suggest that there are five areas in
the global economy which we must address in a systematic
way.
Firstly, we must correct the paradigm that informs a
development issue. This paradigm currently holds the view
that there are developed and developing countries, with the
former knowing how it is done and the latter needing aid,
technical assistance and lessons in good governance to
advance. The problem, as I have argued, is, in fact, the
problem for the whole world economy.
Secondly, we must address the dangers of the surplus wealth
that overhangs the financial systems of the world. The very
considerable benefits of the free movement of capital are
being held hostage by the slow growth and lack of
opportunity in the industrialised countries. This causes
instability and, along with debt, major problems for
development.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 219 of 226
Thirdly, we must address the structural imbalances of the
world trade system. This can be done in a precise and clear
way as we will attempt to show shortly. Fourthly, we must
understand and accept the responsibilities that we as the
leadership of the developing countries have. It is ours to
lead, as our President has said, and so that responsibility
lies firmly and clearly with us.
Fifthly, we must focus on our beloved Africa to build a
renaissance that is based on a clear strategy for economic
development. Let us banish the decrepitude, greed and
narrow ethnic concerns that haunt and stifle our
development. Let us have the unity in our diversity, vision
and the reflective determination that - we of all people
should know - turns our dreams into a reality. [Applause.]
The PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC: Chairperson, I think we have
had a rather long day, and need to conclude our discussions
as soon as possible.
The MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS: Hear, hear! [Laughter.]
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 220 of 226
The PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC: I was watching the hon Dr
Buthelezi towards the end of the debate, that is why I made
that remark. [Laughter.]
I would also like to thank the Chief Whip of the Majority
Party, the hon Tony Yengeni, whose idea essentially it was
that we should close the session of Parliament with this
debate. [Applause.]
I think when all of us go around the country, meeting many
people - rural, urban, black, white, children and adults we are struck by a great spirit of hope and confidence
among our people. It is very much everywhere. Abroad and in
our country, among all our people, there is a confidence
that we will, indeed, have a better future and that they
too, these ordinary people, have something to contribute to
the building of that better future.
A fortnight ago I had an almost two-hour meeting with
children ranging from the age of seven to about 16. One of
them, a young girl of about eight years of age, said: ``Mr
President, you have a lot of work to do. What is it that we
can do to assist you to do that work? [Laughter.]
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 221 of 226
[Applause.] This is among our people, the people who want
to engage these challenges and who we have been talking
about.
Those of us who have the possibility of interacting with
other Africans from outside this country would find, I
think, the same experience. If one were to meet Eritreans
and Ethiopians they would ask: ``Why is South Africa doing
nothing while we are busy killing one another?'' We are not
signatories to the documents signed in Lusaka to bring
about peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo, because
the documents were signed by the belligerents. But if one
were to meet any Congolese person they would ask: ``What is
South Africa doing to help us resolve this conflict?''
Everywhere around the continent the people expect, because
of where we come from, that we would do something to make
our own contribution to this process of the renewal of our
continent.
Those of us who interact with people from outside our
continent find the same spirit among governments, and among
businesspeople and other sectors of society. I had a
meeting with the delegation of New Zealand, among others,
before they left at the end of the Commonwealth Heads of
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 222 of 226
Government meeting. They said: ``We want to say to you, Mr
President, that the government of New Zealand is ready to
respond to any request that you put to us, because we can
see that there is a common challenge to address the
problems that face you on the continent.'' I am saying that
if we interact with the rest of the world outside our
continent, we will meet the same spirit of hope and
confidence and readiness to engage that was communicated by
that young girl of eight.
I think the challenge we face is how we respond to all of
that. I would imagine that among these generations of South
Africans who are here, there are certain things that we
would surely agree about. I am quite sure that we would
agree that we are against oppression anywhere and
everywhere. We could not but take that position because of
our own experience of oppression. I am quite sure that we
would all of us agree that we have to fight racism.
Even the matter to which the hon Sbu Ndebele was referring
I had not noticed. He says that the mamparas of South
Africa are black people. I had not seen that. I had not
noticed it. But it is a reflection of the sensitivity of
these issues and the need ...
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 223 of 226
An HON MEMBER: Sheila Camerer was a mampara.
The PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC: Sheila was also a mampara?
Was she? I do not know. I do not really read the column.
[Interjections.] She was a mampara too.
However, I am saying that I am quite certain that we would
want to say, as these generations that sit in this House,
no to racism. We would want to say that we need to do
everything, but absolutely everything possible, to uphold
the dignity of all human beings. Our own history tells us
that we must take that position. And I think, indeed, that
we need to be sensitive to issues that are being raised.
The hon Jan Momberg spoke, I thought, quite correctly of
our getting out of little laagers that trap us in our
history. But I think we need to be sensitive even to those
people who are trapped, and not to condemn them for being
trapped, but to do something, so that we do not impact
negatively on their dignity either. I think that our
history would tell us, our own experience, not of the past
but of now, that surely we have got to be militantly
opposed to sexism. We can see the destruction that it has
caused and it causes.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 224 of 226
We have to be opposed to war. We have to be opposed to
poverty. And the matter of a better life for people should
not merely be a slogan for election campaigns, but
something that actually engages all of us. We must surely
be hostile to all human abuse, crime and violence against
persons. I think that our own experience would tell us that
these things must surely be common objectives that we all
pursue.
So, yes indeed, whether a millennium begins in a few days
time or in 13 months or whenever it does begin ...
[Laughter]... the fact of the matter is that, I suppose,
this is how the human mind and the human spirit sometimes
works; that birthdays and the first of January, things like
that, seem to signal something new.
I think we need to say, about this something new, that
these South Africans who have this experience - we do not
want to revisit them and we do not want that it should be
visited on anybody else - in whom even children of eightyears old have confidence, that these South Africans will
rise to this challenge so that with this expectation about
the possibility of something new and better, at least we
move towards the realisation of that expectation.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
PAGE 225 of 226
More certainly, as the South African Government, we have to
pursue these things at home and abroad. And I would like to
think that we would want to say, as political parties,
trade unions, religious faiths, youth and women's
organisations and this whole spectrum of all South
Africans, that we have to engage these issues to produce
this new society not for ourselves, but for the larger
world in which we live and within which we develop.
Is this the end, the result or the conclusion of our
Millennium Debate? I would like to think it was. Shall we
do anything about it? That remains to be seen. The hon Kent
Durr read from a poem, and I think at some point it went,
``the power of darkness put to flight''. I am quite sure
that, as South Africa, we can make a very important
contribution to the process of putting that power of
darkness to flight in our country and on our continent.
Best wishes to our compatriots as they go through the holy
month of Ramadan and celebrate Eid. Merry Christmas and a
happy new year and a good rest to everybody, because indeed
there is much work to do. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.
19 NOVEMBER 1999
The Joint Sitting rose at 15:41.
PAGE 226 of 226