Pastor Don Phillips and his wife Pastor Nomsa Phillips,
Entire leadership of the Church,
Adv Genu from the National Prosecuting Authority,
General Fourie from the South African Police Service,
Distinguished guests,
Fellow worshipers.
Allow me to express my profound gratitude for allowing us to address this esteemed congregation. From the point of view of the ruling party, as African National Congress, we owe our very genesis to the church. It was in the Methodist Church way back on 8 January 2012 that the African National Congress was founded.
Having deliberated on the meaning of their pertinent issue of racial exclusion from the 1910 Union of South Africa and the consequent steps that they had to take as response to that, there was no doubt that good leadership was essential to fulfil that very huge and noble vision of a non-racial and equal society.
Having exhausted in looking amongst themselves, they went out to elect as their first President someone who was not even present at the founding National Conference of the ANC and that was Reverend John Langalibalele Dube.
Later on, other Christian leaders were also to play significant roles in the affairs of the organisation and the struggle against racism in South Africa, prior and post 1994, such as Reverend Makgatho. Others include Reverend BeyersNaude who defied his own fellow Afrikaners to side with the just course of a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and all inclusive prosperous society.
There are countless others, some of whom are still alive today, who have continued with contextualising the Christian Faith through social and economic responsibility such as the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Father SmangalisoMkhatshwa, Reverend Allan Boesak, Reverend Ray McCaul and Reverend Frank Chikane, just to mention a few.
I say all this so that as we enter these premises we should not at all be assumed to be strangers to the Christian faith. It has been fellow activists in the struggle against apartheid who taught us that the Christian faith, communists and other belief systems were not antagonistic to the justice that many of our people fought for and for which some paid the ultimate price.
For this very same reason, we considered it paramount that the right to matters of religion, conscience, belief and culture should be boldly enshrined in the Constitution, because we deemed these to be in furtherance of the text and spirit of the Constitution as a whole.
We therefore come to you here today, fully confident that we are one in spirit with you. Whilst as the church you are inspired by Malachi chapter 8 verse 16, which reads thus: “what does the Lord requires of you, but to do justice and walk humble with your Lord?”, justice also informs all our work as government.
And in one of his last teachings before his crucifixion, in the Gospel according to Matthew, he emphasised that those who do not take care of those in various socio-economic difficulties, he will deny those in front of God. That is when he said it not those who merely call upon his name but those who do his will that will enter his eternal Kingdom.
And it was James who further confirmed this when he said show me your faith without works and I will show you mine through works, summarily declaring that faith without works is dead!
Please allow me to make quote in the Holy Bible where James in chapter 2 verses from 14 he says, and I quote:
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
I believe that is what inspired the Reverend John Langalibalele Dube as he agreed to take up the mandate to fight against the injustice to which he himself was a living witness.
There is none other better than the area of access to justice for all wherein we should collaborate to fulfil the declaration by the old African spiritual song: “Lizalise idingalakho Thixo Nkosi ye nyaniso!” translated to say “Fulfil thy promise oh God, Lord of truth!”
As the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, we are responsible to safeguard and promote the values enshrined in our Constitution, including the Bill of Rights. Our history deeply polarised society to the extent that political partisanship obscured the need to collaborate on what must constitute the non-negotiable fibre of South African citizenship, including the universal application of the principles of human dignity through a rights based approach.
There is no doubt that the Constitution and the laws that flow from it are not exclusive property of government but the people as a whole, hence their fulfilment requires our concerted efforts.
I know that crime is one of the most serious threats to the values entailed in the Constitution that guarantees human dignity as it directly impacts on the essence of our livelihood. And because we sought to ensure that at no stage must there be reason to believe that human rights as constitutional law must ever be eroded without just cause, we established Chapter 9 institutions supportive of democracy such as the Public Protector, Human Rights as well as Gender Commissions as public guarantees.
As government, we are charged with implementing the transformation programme as electorally mandated by our people, and where there is any reason to believe we erred or deviated from the text and spirit of the Constitution or the legislative laws, these chapter 9 institutions are there to safeguard public interests as constitutionally and statutorily defined.
And because we must all uphold the dignity of all our people in our everyday life, the systems that we put in place to ensure this must also be above-board. The integrity of our constitutional democracy in general and the justice system in particular, is furthered in the broadest sense through the three arms of the State, which are the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. In this regard, the prudence of these institutions is fundamental principle so that the entire democratic and justice system inspire confidence amongst all our people.
We have as a result always kept the lines of the separation of powers amongst the three arms of the State that I have mentioned, so that there is never ground to believe that one is unduly influenced by the other as that may constitute deviation from the text and spirit of the Constitution.
Dear congregants,
The various challenges we continue to face are embedded in the kind of society we have inevitably allowed to develop over time, dating way back to the colonial and later apartheid eras, not just the past 20 years as some would opportunistically argue.
These criminals do not suddenly land from space, but are people who grow up and live in our own neighbourhoods and some of them are our relatives, associates and acquaintances. That is why we believe that the church is best suited to lead on the Moral Regeneration of our society at large, from the ruins of apartheid underdevelopment because of both its integrity and its proximity with our people every day.
Of course it is increasingly becoming out-fashioned to blame every problem on apartheid as instead we must focus on how we uproot this historical legacy urgently so that we enjoy the kind of social security that we deserve.
The social and psychological mind-set that predisposes our youth to criminal behaviour is the demon that we believe the church can help us to exorcise from our communities, amongst others working in tandem with the security establishment such as Community Policing Forums. Nature does not allow a vacuum, thus if the church does not enlist the youth in its ranks for productive purposes, others social orientations are there to win them over for ill-gain purposes.
As part of ensuring the integrity of the justice system through the implementation of the principle of the separation of powers, we have as the Executive granted the Judiciary powers to administer itself, so that the implementation of justice in the courts does not become a partisan decision, but one based on the sole interpretation of the Constitution, statutes and the relevant procedures to ensure access to justice for all.
We are happy because Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has demonstrated his keenness to ensure speedy justice, even admonishing his colleagues in the judiciary that the days of anyone of them hiding under the overall statistics of others with regards to performances, when individually are perpetually postponing cases, are over.
As you will know, it is a common adage that justice delayed is justice denied, and we believe that the Chief Justice as the head of the Judicial Administration as entrusted to him by an Act of Parliament will ensure speedy justice for all our people.
And having considered that it would be useless to have courts but fail to ensure proper legal representation during litigation of cases, we have increased our financial contribution into Legal Aid South Africa, to ensure that justice is not just in word but also in deed. We also know that amongst the poor, some of the most prevalent bone of contention are petty squabbles about money owing by this one person from another.
We have accordingly introduced Small Claims Courts to adjudicate on cases where the sum total of money involved and under dispute does not exceed R12 500. These Small Claims Courts are run through the free services of Commissioners appointed by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development for this very same purpose and they do their work pro-bono, which is to say without being paid or free of charge.
Those who take their cases to the Small Claims Courts do not pay a cent and do so without a legal representation so as to ensure that legal costs do not add to the troubles of fighting over monies owing of less than R12 500. Any person of good standing in Society can qualify to become a Commissioner in the Small Claims Courts, and no doubt the Church with all its integrity can play a pivotal role as Good Samaritans towards the attainment of justice in the Small Claims Courts.
We have also noted that one of the main problems facing our people is that of the escalating rate of sexual violence against women and children. We have as the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development launched what we call Thuthuzela Centres around the country, as safe shelters for women mostly suffering from domestic abuse.
This is to ensure that not only are the criminal cases of women abuse adjudicated speedily and fairly but also that women who are victims of such abuses do not undergo secondary victimisation as they go about seeking redress in our courts. On 23 August this year, 120kms from here, in Butterworth, I opened the first Sexual Offences Court in the country which is part of the 57 courts identified for upgrading to fit the model that will effectively deal with these cases.
A week after the launch, a serial rapist and killer Bulelani Mabhayi who had mercilessly murdered over 23 elderly women and children at Tholeni village was sentenced in that court to 25 life terms. This is evidence of an effective justice system. Women from churches should be in the forefront to confront the problem of women abuse through mutual support of victims, just like the Good Samaritan did to the Jew who was a total stranger, and the church as a whole can help defeat this new culture where women are seen as easy criminal prey for rape, assault and so on.
In furtherance of the Child Justice Act, we have made elaborate interventions to help better deal with the challenge of juvenile or child offenders. This was after we considered the consequences of putting child offenders in the same correctional facilities as old and hardened criminals, who can only aggravate the criminal conduct of the young child offenders.
It is our belief that young people should be in schools, in universities, in colleges, at work, in sports, in choirs, in churches and in many other social and cultural groups. We must plead with the church to cultivate this spirit amongst our youth, that the doors of democracy that opened in 1994 requires of them not to wait somewhere for government to deliver various social services but that they must partake as midwives of the personal and community change they want to see.
Young people must be encouraged to be visionary about their own lives, their neighbourhood and even their country at large. It is out of such visions that we can have a dynamic youth that can ensure the various social challenges we face including crime, are defeated. As collectives, the youth must be able to see sustainable business opportunities in their neighbourhood, and if need be ask government for collaborative assistance.
But it must not be the old story of mere tenders, which is basically not an independent project that ensures economic growth except to depend on the taxes which has many competing priorities already. We must encourage the youth to see business opportunities in areas other than where government is client, because where government is concerned that is already overdone.
One of the most contentious issues on the public domain is that of corruption and fraud. Since the advent of democracy in 1994, we have created institutions and systems responsible to combat corruption. We have established the Special Investigation Unit in the National Prosecuting Authority as well as the Asset forfeiture Unit.
Millions in rand have been forfeited to the State following the successful prosecution and conviction of criminals who have defrauded the State, the private sector as well as NGO’s. The temptation for money is what caused Judas to betray Christ with a kiss, and for the same reason some even betray the struggle for a better life and the laws of our country. We have consequently published over 42 names of those who have been convicted of corruption so that no government or private sector can trust them with money going into the future.
We have in the past demonstrated our support for any endeavour to combat the crime of corruption and fraud, hence for instance we supported the COSATU led initiative when establishing Corruption Watch as a civilian initiative or NGO to combat corruption.
Like in any just instance, corruption must not just be a swear word used for rhetoric political gain, but as the rest of our justice system demands, facts must be presented so that when we have dealt with anyone who is deemed corrupt there must be no fear of contradiction on whether or not justice was actually meted to the alleged culprit.
Corruption must not be reduced to a rumour but duly elevated to a matter of the facts that must be accordingly presented against anyone deemed corrupt no matter that person’s standing in society.
As my Cabinet colleague and Minister of Finance Pravin Gordham announced recently, billions are wasted to corruption and we must pull our socks to defeat this dire scourge that does not only threaten service delivery programmes but also the very fibre of our laws and the Constitution. Collectively, we must declare that we will not permit the mafia underworld to undermine the realisation of the values promoted by the Bill of Rights and which must constitute the lived experience of each one of us.
Dear congregants,
In as much as we believe that the church is the corner stone that founded the ruling party, we also believe that the Church is the rock upon which we as a nation must stand tall amongst the nations of the world. The church carries on its shoulders the promise that we can be a morally inclined nation, where all the social ills of crime, corruption, inequality, poverty, unemployment and so on, become a thing of the past!
I know that we have many challenges as a country. I also know that because we are a very vibrant democracy, there is always the likelihood that the truth can be lost as we try to score political points against each other. However, allow me to say it without any fear of contradiction that South Africa of today is better than what it was in 1994 and that working together the future promises to be even better than what we have today!
There are facts to back why today I can say we are better than in 1994, and that through your continued support we can continue to make South Africa an even better place for all our people.
In 1994 we had a backlog of 1.2 million houses. By end of 2012, we had subsidised over 3.38 million houses for those earning less than R12 500 per month. We have further built 100 000 houses per year on what is popularly known as RDP houses.
Where poor quality is concerned we have intervened and the relevant crooks who have short-changed both our government and our people have been brought to book. Instead of building few big houses, we opted to build smaller but more RDP houses to urgently scale down the huge backlog we inherited in 1994.
We should also remember that the apartheid human settlement design was such that people were crammed into 13% of the land and the democratic order meant that people could now freely move into urban areas where they were previously prohibited to live. The suddenness of our freedom in 1994 created an influx into the urban areas of people without homes and jobs, and the new ANC government had to speedily meet these overwhelmingly high social development demands.
With regards to electricity, 5.5 million households had access to electricity in 1994, and by 2012 over 10 million households had electrification in their homes. An additional half a million households had access to solar geysers.
In terms of the National Development Plan projections, we plan to double the current energy production so that both our growing population and our growing economy are sustainable and not disadvantaged by shortages in energy.
Projects in this regard also include gas in the Karoo and Mozambique as well as the Inga Dam for hydro power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is part of our development design, premised on the belief that South Africa cannot be an island of rapid economic development in a sea of regional or continental poverty.
With regards to water, 5million households had clean tap water, and by the end of 2012 there were over 13million households connected to running clean tap water. Since 1994, 13 major dams have been built and that include the Lesotho Highlands Water project. It may be important to highlight that South Africa is only one of 12 countries in the world where tap water is safe to drink throughout the country.
This is not automatic, it is the systems that we continue to put in place to meet the domestic water consumption needs of all our people. Our target as per the projections of the National Development Plan is that by 2030 every household must have access to safe drinkable tap water.
By 1994, only half the population had access to toilets, and we have added a further 6 million households to bring the total to 80% of the population with access to toilets. Basically we have been building on average 1200 toilets every day since 1994. We are confident that we would supply our people with toilets in the City of Cape Town after next year’s election when we take over that municipality and the Western Cape province. Our immediate goal is to have 100 % sanitation in all human settlements.
On the very crucial aspect of education, we had 150 000 African students enrolled in universities in 1994, and by 2012 this figure had risen astronomically to 750 000 African students. This is not only good for the economy but also to address the deliberate education designs by Verwoerd and company, who sought to limit the African’s development and participation in the economy through inferior education. One of our immediate goals is that by next year we should have all pupils in our schools having all their required text books.
We continue to test grades 3, 6 and 9, to assess academic progress every year. These are efforts not to show to just reveal weaknesses but to highlight areas of ongoing interventions to correct any deficiencies. Government bursaries for higher education have been increased from a paltry R21 million in 1994 to R8 billion in 2013, offered through the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
On roads and transport, of the 750 000 km of roads in South Africa, only 2 500 km are tolled. Now, this is the point that the President was trying to explain before his speech was zoomed out of context, which is to say the toll roads are quality roads serving the hub of our economic activities and for which it would only be fair that the daily users pay for the building and upkeep of those roads.
The rest are paid for through taxes. In 1994, our harbours handled 127 000 tonnes per year, and by 2012 our harbours handled 185 000 tonnes, signalling our growing economy. On public transport, we have subsidised safe 16-seater mini busses whose economic activities by and large serve primarily those previously disadvantaged by apartheid.
On land redistribution since 1994, nearly R3 million hectares of land has been redistributed to more than 220 000 beneficiaries through 2 600 projects. State owned land audit has been completed and further action to ensure parity on the land question will soon follow in an orderly manner.
As I conclude, access to justice must not be understood in the narrow lines of litigation in courts. In our broad concept, justice must refer to all the social, economic, political and even environmental development concerns that constitute the fullness of our earthly human beings.
It is in this dimension that as the ruling party we have authority to speak on what must be done, and we believe as we do so, the area to which you have full authority which is spirituality, will fully complement our common work to make South Africa a shining example of a successful African constitutional democracy. As the church, you must vision of a better Mthatha than it is today, as a shining example of how better a place can be where the church is involved.
With these words, allow me to profoundly thank the leadership of this church for kindly allowing me to address this esteemed congregation. I believe that we should continue to partner each other in our respective and collective endeavours to bring better life to all our people.
I think there is convergence in our respective mandates, because whilst we derive our mandate from the people through elections and policy proposal making processes, and you derive your mandate from God, it was nonetheless Christ himself who asked how we could love God without loving our neighbour, thus marrying the two vertical and horizontal mandates into one.
I thank you!
