Honourable House Chair His Excellency the President
His Excellency the Deputy President
Honourable Speaker and Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces
Honourable members and Dear South Africans
One has noticed that in this debates and in others before, we are being ridiculed or even prevented from quoting our apartheid and colonial past, while other nations, perhaps those which are regarded as super nations are allowed to quote their past and even use that to fight present wars.
One of the media houses recording this event has even attempted to intimidate those of us who are still to debate, by
mentioning the number of ANC speakers who referred to colonialism and apartheid in their inputs.
Let me advise them that there is no chance of such a tactic or strategy succeeding because John Jay Chapman, an author, said: “One of the deepest impulses in man is the impulse to record, to scratch a drawing on a tusk or keep a diary … The enduring value of the past is, one might say, the very basis of civilization”
Another author, David McCullough said: “History is who we are and why we are the way we are”.
Still another author, Robert Heinlein, says: “A generation which ignores history has no past and no future”.
“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday,” so says Pearl Buck, a novelist.
Mr President, a search of yesterday reveals that gogos are also Tintswalos. After completing my medical studies at the University of Natal, now called KZN University, I went to work in Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga. I immediately met with an
ethical dilemma brought by the apartheid system. The old age SASSA grants that help our people were not there, at least not in a systematic structured way that the ANC government brought.
Only a lucky few here and there had access to some form of old- age grant, which was also coming only bi-monthly or in some cases every three months. Only whites were getting them every month. The dilemma we were faced with was that we were advised by social workers that the only way to help our old folk out of poverty through some form of a social grant was to declare them disabled.
They then would have a chance of getting a disability grant. We had to declare completely able-bodied gogos disabled just to help them survive. In the 90s, in Sekhukhune, we even had to organize all the aged people to march against the Lebowa Bantustan in demand of their old age pensions. There is a picture at SABC TV showing them pointing to the sky with their walking sticks in a defiant Amandla salute against the police who
were there trying to stop them. Please fact check with SABC TV. Come ANC into power, their Tintswalo moment arrived.
Today, all you need to do when you reach that age, is to fill a SASSA form.
I, Mr President also became your Tintswalo even at my age, and even being a medical practitioner. The place where I opened my medical practice had no electricity and no running water or no system to connect from. One had to improvise with water drums and lanterns or candle for lighting.
My Tintswalo moment came when ANC rolled out electricity to rural villages and started also rolling out programmes of clean running water.
Mr President, even whole communities became your Tintswalos. Yesterday, the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla announced the delivery of Modern Medical equipment at St Rita’s hospital in Sekhukhune. On Christmas day of 1986, I was in theater in that hospital, performing a Caesar alone. I was my own surgeon, my own anesthetist and my own assistant surgeon – for I was the
only doctor working at that hospital at that time. Performing such a procedure alone was expressly forbidden by the then medical council. But one had to choose between obeying the rules and letting mother and baby perish. Breaking such rules out of desire to safe lives became days of our lives.
Mr President, St Ritas hospital has had its Tintswalo moments, it has not only received the modern equipment Dr Phaahla referred to, but now it has 50 (fifty) full time doctors.
Ntate Nodada, ge o sa tsebe go re maloba batho be geno ba be ba phela bjang o no e homola. You grossly undermined the Tintswalo moment of matric results because you don’t understand today since your newly acquired political home discourages you from searching yesterday.
Let those of us who are not forbidden by political ideology to search yesterday inform you.
These matric results are a massive monument of our democracy compared to what was there. I am now referring you and please go to fact check with institutions to help you prove what I am
going to tell you. Under apartheid Bantu Education, the matric results of the then Lebowa Government was 27% in 1993 just a year before democracy. That fact is not known because matric results were not announced in public during that era. Considering that Lebowa used to constitute 80% of the whole of Limpopo in terms of numbers, you can imagine what this did to the Limpopo matric results by at that time. So today is definitely better than yesterday.
Hon. House Chair, the Department of Home Affairs has released the white paper on Citizenship, Refugee Protection and Immigration – towards a complete overhaul of the migration system of the country. This is going to be the first time since our democratic breakthrough that we are going to have an over- arching policy on migration. Those who don’t understand why we need to press the reset button on migration need just to read the various court judgements in this area. This includes the judgement that was made only last week, by the Gauteng High Court, which is being referred to as a victory to the Department of Home Affairs.
Mr President, on the 8th of February, the Department of Home Affairs released a Government Gazette no. 11666, that issued draft immigration as well as new visa regulations for public comments.
The visa regulations are a result of the recommendations of the Vulindlela Report which you, Mr President, commissioned. They will usher in a new and improved way of dealing with visas; a new era of trusted employer scheme; remote working visa; and a point system on the awarding of certain types of visas.
I wish to end by explaining a directive that was issued by the Department of Home Affairs on the 21/12/2023. This directive is clearly misunderstood by all and sundry.
This was meant to be an internal memo, to guide new BMA officials at the ports of entry. Unfortunately, it even touched on issues that clearly needed no directive.
We are being accused of chasing tourist out of South Africa. Fortunately, I have had an opportunity of having a heart-to-heart discussion with my colleagues in Tourism, Minister De Lille.
Before you accuse us of things unbecoming, let me explain. For tourism purposes, 44 countries in Europe need no visas to visit South Africa; 20 countries in Asia also need no visas; as are 36 countries in the African continent, including the whole SADC, with the exception of DRC; same applies to 19 countries in North America, 11 countries in South America and 3 countries in Oceania.
This totals 132 countries. The remaining 34 countries that need visas are all on fastrack e-visa system.
In terms of the Immigration Act, people on visitors or tourist visas have between 30 and a maximum of 90 days to be in South Africa. If you renew for another 90 days, you will have a total of 180 days, after which the law allows no more extensions. This means you have to leave the country, or else you will be declared undesirable.
All visitors know that and have been practicing that for ages without the Department being accused of chasing away tourists.
What is new here, is that a circular or directive has been issued to guide new BMA officials at ports of entry but the directive ended up in the public arena. We concede that there was no need to advise anybody to leave the country on a particular day because such dates are already stipulated on the visa.
The other clarity I have to make is that if you have applied for a visa extension and you have not yet received a response, the receipt you get as proof of your application serves as an extension of your visa until such time that you get the outcome of your application, positive or negative.
No one should arrest you while you have such a receipt, and no one can declare you undesirable.
Thank you
