debate on the Budget Vote of the Presidency: National Assembly, Cape Town
8 June 2006.
Madame Speaker,
Honourable Deputy President,
Honourable Members of the National Assembly,
Fellow South Africans:
I am certain that many of us present in the House today and others among our
people, will recall the day, almost three months ago, when the Secretary
General of the United Nations, the Honourable Kofi Annan, addressed our
parliament and nation from this podium. That was on March 14.
I do not know what the majority of us felt and thought as Kofi Annan spoke
about what our country has come to represent in the eyes of the world community
of nations.
Later that day, the Secretary General told me that he spoke as he did,
because he believed that we might perhaps be too close to our own experience,
and too engrossed in our daily challenges, fully to understand the meaning to
all humanity of what we have been trying to do during the very short period of
12 years of our liberation.
I regret now that I did not tell him what I felt as he spoke from this
podium, in praise of the nobility, the wisdom and humanism of our people.
Up to now, I have not explained to him that I might have seemed tongue-tied,
because I was truly humbled by what was said about us by such an eminent
statesperson, an outstanding African, and the occupant of the high position of
Secretary General of the United Nations.
I am certain also that, except for those who are prone to conceit and
vanity, it is always difficult to know how to respond to genuine words of
praise that are spoken with honest and disinterested intent.
Very often, both perversely and in a positive sense, such praise embarrasses
those who are the subject of the accolades. This, I am convinced, describes the
response among many of us as we listened to the Honourable Kofi Annan, three
months ago.
If you will allow me, I will now proceed to remind the National Assembly
about some of the things about our country that Kofi Annan stated from this
podium.
Among other things, the Secretary General said:
âThe truth is that development in Africa requires a new approach; and the
good news is that South Africa is pointing the way. First, you are pointing the
way by what you are doing at home. South Africa today reminds us all of the
remarkable African capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation, despite the
pain of racial discrimination and oppression.
âYour robust economy, stable democracy, support for the rule of law and -
perhaps most important - your fully inclusive Constitution have made South
Africa a beacon of tolerance, peaceful coexistence, and mutual respect between
people of different races, languages and traditions.
âYour ârainbow nationâ shines out in the very shape and composition of this
Assembly. As I look around this chamber I am impressed not only by the variety
of races and colours that are represented, but also by the number of women. You
put the General Assembly of the United Nations to shame!
âSecondly, you are pointing the way by what you are doing in your
sub-regional neighbourhood...This is very important, because no country today
can be unaffected by events in its neighbourhood, and it is the responsibility
of the stronger countries in each neighbourhood to lend a hand to the weaker,
without seeking to impose their domination.
âThirdly, you are pointing the way through your leading role in Africa as a
wholeâ¦South Africa is (also) pointing the way by what it is doing in the wider
world.
âIn his speech to the World Summit last September, President Mbeki referred
to âthe widely disparate conditions of existence and interests ... as well as
the gross imbalance of powerâ, which define the relationship among the Member
States of the United Nations.
âHe identified these as the main reason why we have not yet achieved the
security consensus that we must reach, if we are to maintain peace in the world
on a basis of agreement and collective action rather than the unilateral
application of power.
âI agree. I agree the imbalance must be redressed. But the
imbalance itself means that those seeking to redress it do not have the
leverage to impose their will on the rest of the world. Only with a good
strategy and wise leadership can they make progress towards their goal.
âToday, the kind of things South Africa is doing at home, and promoting on
the wider African scene, may show us the best way for developing countries in
general to respond to todayâs world.
âIn his valedictory address to a joint session of this Parliament, nearly
two years ago, Nelson Mandela said: âThe memory of a history of division
and hate, injustice and suffering, inhumanity of person against person should
inspire us to celebrate our own demonstration of the capacity of human beings
to progress, to go forward, to improve, to do better.â
âIndeed, my dear friends, I believe it has inspired you, and you in turn
have inspired Africa and the world.
âYour Truth and Reconciliation Commission has given the world an idea, and a
mechanism, which many other countries have used, or are now using, to confront
an ugly national past.
âYou have shown that a nation need not be imprisoned by its history; that
even people whose communities have been in bitter conflict, and have endured or
committed the worst injustice, can work together to build a common future.
âI believe this example can serve not only other individual countries, but
also the world as a whole, which today is seething, seething with resentment
based on past and present injustice, and with misunderstandings based on
differences of culture and belief.
âPerhaps the most important task of the United Nations today is to help its
Member States overcome those resentments and misunderstandings, both between
communities within (their) borders and between different regions of the
world. In that task, we have much to learn from South Africa.
âAs F.W. de Klerk said in his 1993 Nobel Lecture, peace âis a frame of mind
in which countries, communities, parties and individuals seek to resolve their
differences through agreements, through negotiation and compromise, instead of
threats, compulsion and violenceâ.
âSouth Africaâs particular wisdom, derived from its own history of
overcoming resentment and mistrust, can be used to convince other countries
that injustices and misunderstandings are not cured by confrontation or
threats, since these only strengthen the determination of the powerful to keep
power in their own hands.
âSouth Africa can teach all of us that, on the contrary, the way to (a)
better balance lies through dialogue, and the establishment of mutual
trust. Only in such an atmosphere can the weak win attention and respect
from the strong.
âSouth Africa can teach its fellow developing countries to make good use of
the United Nations, which is the natural forum for a global dialogue leading to
better trust and understanding between rich and poor, between weak and strong,
and so to a more balanced and inclusive way of taking decisions that affect the
fate of all humanity.â
What I have quoted is but a portion of what the Secretary General of the
United Nations told our Parliament and nation on March 14, about what
democratic South Africa has come to mean to the world community of
nations.
It may very well be that some among us have, today, listened again to the words
spoken by the UN Secretary General with a sense of disbelief.
If such disbelief exists, I will not question or challenge it. In any event,
fear of the legitimate accusation of vanity imposes the outcome that it becomes
almost impossible for me to claim and assert that the Secretary General was
correct to arrive at the conclusions he boldly asserted from this podium.
That, in any case, is not the principal challenge we face in terms of what
we need to do to respond to the humbling observations of the Secretary General
of the United Nations.
I believe that the heart of the message of the Secretary General to the
leadership of our people that sits in our Parliament, and our people as a
whole, was and is that we have an obligation to live up to the practices he
identified as constituting what our actions have meant with regard to the noble
goal of conveying the message of hope to all humanity, that, indeed, tomorrow
will be better than today.
I must therefore pose the question to all our Members of Parliament â was
Kofi Annan wrong in his assessment of what we have done relating to our own
country, our continent, the developing world and the rest of humanity!
I must ask of all our Members of Parliament â did Kofi Annan read us wrongly
when he concluded that ours is a nation committed to the creation of humane and
people-centred societies nationally and globally!
I must ask the question â was he mistaken in his view that the practice of
human solidarity, breaching all the boundaries that might divide diverse
societies, is the central impulse driving what we have sought to do to advance
the dignity of all human beings, at home and abroad!
I must ask all our Members of Parliament â was he wrong to come to the
conclusion that our actions during the years of democracy have been inspired by
the message communicated by Nelson Mandela, when he said:
âThe memory of a history of division and hate, injustice and suffering,
inhumanity of person against person should inspire us to celebrate our own
demonstration of the capacity of human beings to progress, to go forward, to
improve, to do better.â
I am convinced that all our Members of Parliament, the national collective
of popularly elected leaders of our people, will, in unison, answer all these
questions, saying that the Secretary General of the United Nations was right to
conclude as he did.
Accordingly, the task that faces all of us together, regardless of our
partisan political affiliations, is what we must do today, tomorrow and the day
after, to sustain the message of hope and human fulfilment that Kofi Annan saw
in the things we have sought to do together during the few years of our
liberation.
Yesterdayâs Debate on the Budget Vote of the Presidency has convinced me
that the Secretary General of the United Nations, the masses of our people,
Africa and the rest of the world can indeed enjoy nights of restful sleep.
This is because this Debate communicated the unequivocal message that the
national political leadership that constitutes the membership of the National
Assembly, and the formations this leadership represents, are indeed truly
determined to sustain the message of hope and human fulfilment that Kofi Annan
saw in the things we have sought to do during the few years of our
liberation.
Yesterday, you, Honourable Members, regardless of political affiliation,
firmly stated your unequivocal support for our countryâs Presidency, correctly
emphasising that this leading organ in our system of governance must continue
to discharge its responsibilities, operating within the boundaries defined by
our Constitution, as it has done in the past.
I would also like to express my profound appreciation for the positive
statements made by many Members, across party lines, about me personally,
within the context of the fulfilment of my responsibilities as President of the
Republic. I value deeply, and without qualification, the support that the
Honourable Members, from all parties, communicated in their heartfelt
comments.
In this regard, I would also like to assure the Honourable Members that I
fully appreciate the intent of the frank and critical remarks directed at the
President by some of the Members.
I accept, unreservedly, that what informed these remarks was the legitimate
objective to ensure that the President and the Presidency improve their
performance in terms of serving the people of our country, and respecting their
Constitutional obligations.
We will therefore respond to the concerns expressed by two or three of the
Honourable Members.
However, I would also like to advise that should any of the Members seek to
reach me quickly, they should contact my very capable Parliamentary Counsellor
and Member of this House, the Honourable John Jeffreys.
It is not right that I hear about horrible and heart-rending stories of the
murder and rape of children, and the appeals of the affected parents to the
President in this regard, only because the National Assembly has scheduled a
parliamentary debate involving the President.
I am convinced that we should consider ourselves privileged to accept the
challenges that the Secretary General of the United Nations honestly and
frankly laid at our feet on the 14th of March.
To discharge our obligations in this regard, I believe, firmly, that we
should integrate in the national consciousness and psyche the profound
observations made, among others, by the Hon Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the
Hon Kader Asmal, the Hon Bantu Holomisa, the Hon Isaac Mfundisi, the Hon Carole
Johnson, the Hon Sindiswa Chikunga, the Hon Pandelani Nefolovhodwe, the Hon Don
Gumede, the Hon Wilma Newhoudt-Drucken, the Hon Jane Matsomela, and others.
In this context I must also express appreciation for the remarks made by the
Hon Tony Leon, and the manner in which he expressed his views. I was indeed
pleased to note the fact that the Honourable Members truly respected his right
to state his views by containing their heckling, making it possible for all of
us to hear what he had to say, regardless of its merits.
I hasten to apologise for mentioning the names of some of the Hon Members
who spoke yesterday, and excluding others. I value the important comments made
by other Members of the National Assembly to whom I have not referred, and will
take the necessary steps to respond to them.
These include the Hon Sydney Opperman, who clearly has problems about the
Native Club, and, for whatever reason, seems to have decided, quite wrongly,
that this interesting initiative of the black intelligentsia is the property of
the President of the Republic.
In this regard, like the Hon Koos van der Merwe, I am happy that I, too, am
a native of South Africa. I would therefore have no problem in approaching the
Native Club to seek to participate in its activities. I hope I would find in
its ranks the Afrikaners to whom the Hon Carole Johnson referred, who hoped
that one day they would have the possibility to proclaim that they are proudly
South African and African natives!
The Hon Dr Buthelezi, Kader Asmal, Bantu Holomisa, Don Gumede and others
took the bold step to speak to the various fractious debates and activities our
country has lived through during the last twelve months or more. I thank them
for their considered and elevating views in this regard.
However, I would like to make bold to say that the things they said have a
meaning and relevance that extend beyond whatever might constitute the events
and statements that evoked their statements. What I will now say is perhaps
nothing more than a declaration of faith, with no force beyond its moral force
as a declaration of faith.
In this context, I am privileged to say that I am Proudly South African. I
am proud of the people to whom I owe my being. I am humbled by the opportunity
they gave me to lead them.
I have sought to play this temporary role fully conscious of the imperative
never to act in any manner that is inconsistent with what the masses of our
people consider to be the soul of our nation, as defined by a particular value
system that continues to reaffirm the tenets of the traditional perspective of
ubuntu.
I speak here of a people, regardless of race, colour and gender, that is
truly cultured. The millions of our people know what is wrong and what is
right. They know what kinds of behaviour enhance our dignity as a nation and
what kinds of behaviour demean all of us.
They know of the importance that all our cultures attach to the notion and
practice of respect and its relevance to the building of a civilised society
that honours the dignity of all persons. They know that truthfulness signifies
honesty and integrity. They know too that it is not necessarily he or she who
has the loudest voice that is the wisest.
Surely, all of us who claim that we lead these masses have an obligation to
honour, respect and promote the values they cherish, and resist all temptation
to behave as though the fact of our leadership positions entitles us to
dishonour the simple goodness that our people display everyday.
I know this as a matter of fact that our people deeply value the democracy
they brought about through struggle. I know that they are convinced that this
democracy guarantees that tomorrow their lives will be better than they are
today. They know that it is only in a democratic and law-governed South Africa
that they will realise their dreams for happiness and human fulfilment.
Because of all of this, I am certain that our democratic system is safe.
Nevertheless I believe that all of us, severally and collectively, have an
obligation to speak and act in a manner that further deepens and consolidates
the great gifts of democracy and peace we secured at great cost. As the Freedom
Park Trust always says â freedom was not free!
I thank the Honourable Members for their participation in a Debate that
demonstrated that we are indeed firmly united behind the fundamental values and
perspectives so clearly defined in our Constitution. I am certain that if the
Hon Kofi Annan had been present in the House yesterday, he would have been
reassured that his confidence in our country is not misplaced.
I am very pleased and honoured to thank our Deputy President, our Ministers
and Deputy Ministers, the staff of the Presidency that is ably led by the Rev
Frank Chikane, his fellow Directors-General, my advisers and the public service
in general for the support they have given me personally, and the things they
have done that seek to give meaning to the promise we made, that we have
entered our Age of Hope.
Thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
8 June 2006
