Failure of leadership is pulling SA down: President should not seek re-election

Note to editors: This is an extract of the speech that was delivered by DA Parliamentary Leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko MP during today's debate on the Presidency budget vote.

Honourable President, 

Honourable Members,

South Africa is suffering a crisis of leadership. 

The stark evidence of this is everywhere to be seen. 

The education and health departments of the Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces are collapsing due to a failure of leadership. The national government is teetering under the weight of mismanagement and poor decision-making.  
 
Earlier this month, the Auditor-General, Terence Nombembe, eloquently spelled out the reasons for this collapse of governance:

They are the lack of skills at the local level; the impunity of those who fail to deliver; the demoralisation of those who try their best, and the failure of those in charge to account for their mistakes. Simply put, the collapse of governance in South Africa is due to a failure of leadership.

This was echoed by the chairperson of Nedbank, Reuel Khoza, who said that South Africa's leadership "needed to adhere to the institutions that underpinned democracy". He added that "the political climate was not a picture of an accountable democracy". 

Mr Speaker, this failure of leadership is causing havoc on the "frontline" of our democracy where real people live. I have heard some of their stories.   

Over the past few months, my colleagues and I have been undertaking walks of solidarity with our fellow citizens who have been left behind by this government.

I have pushed a wheelbarrow for 7km through Brandfort in the Free State, to collect water at the municipal waterworks, because of the local government's failure to deliver this basic service.

The women of Brandfort must walk this distance several times a day in order to provide for their most basic needs. 

I have felt the grinding exhaustion of the children from Zweledinga High School in Queenstown municipality, who have to walk between 10 and 25km every day to get to school, because the Eastern Cape government has failed to provide them with the necessary learner transport.

The children in particular, were an inspiration. One aspires to be an engineer, while another hopes to be a schoolteacher. While they and their parents have shown an unflinching commitment to securing their future, the government has simply left them behind.

Every encounter touched me deeply, and made me determined to make their voices heard.

Mr Speaker: citizens look to the President to propose bold solutions to big problems. But today, their faith has been shaken. The President must restore it by showing leadership.

Look at what is happening elsewhere.

Despite turmoil in the global economy and the capital markets, other developing countries are surging ahead. 

From Brazil to Vietnam to the fastest growing region in the world - our continent of Africa - developing states are forging a bright path towards prosperity and a better life. 

Yet South Africa is left behind, crying out for leadership and direction. 

In these difficult days, we look to the President to give the nation hope to overcome despair. Yet he has failed to match the power of his office with a sense of purpose.

The President's attention has been diverted from his duties. Energy spent on organising a march to an art gallery and a legal challenge to a work of satire has distracted from the serious work of government.

Once again, representatives of the ANC, and some of its ministers, are attempting to close down the space for freedom of expression through bullying and intimidation.

This perversely mirrors the mind-set and practices of the apartheid government. 

Freedom of expression is an essential ingredient of any healthy democracy. Let us rise above this distraction, and have the wisdom to disagree without being disagreeable. And let us remember that those who question power make as indispensable a contribution to our democracy as those who exercise it.

In this spirit, if the President were to act boldly from today by exercising power in pursuit of noble goals, he would have the encouragement and good wishes of the Official Opposition. 

This is because the office of the President is greater than the head which it rests upon.

Mr Speaker: we can see how the failure of leadership is holding back progress on jobs. 

Everyone in this House will know that the biggest tragedy of our time is unemployment. The nation is crying out for action, and action now. 

Last year, the President promised us "the year of the job". Yet the only job that we seem to hear about is his: Will he keep it? Will he lose it? Who will challenge him for it? 

And so the entire nation is left unsure as to whether he uses power, or power uses him.
  
While public debate centres on the person who wears the crown, we know that it is because this Presidency was purchased by a coalition of the discontented at Polokwane. 

Where leaders should embody hope, we know that this Presidency was born in discord and dispute.   

The outcome is that the President's term of office has been directed by remote control. The operators range from Cosatu, to the SACP, to a shadowy ‘state within a state' in the security services. This has led to the many policy contradictions at the heart of government.

The only place in which jobs seem to have been created is in the Presidency itself. There, the President had to create two additional ministries, and must constantly expand his office in order to pay down his political debts.

The South African taxpayers' support for the President more than doubled from R43 million in 2009-10 to nearly R90 million rand in 2010-11. 

The President's instincts with respect to taxpayers' money were borne out when he replied to a question I put to him in this House last week about politicians applying for government tenders. 

We already know that a Cosatu investment firm benefited from e-tolling in Gauteng, despite their alleged opposition to the project. Yet the President insisted that: 

"We are discriminating against politicians by not allowing them to do business regarding infrastructure investments".

Here, we see the dividing line that is tearing this government apart. The President's reply contradicted his own Deputy, the Honourable Montlanthe, who earlier told Parliament:

"Chancellor House should not do business with government at all...It should not do business in a way which gives it an advantage because it is an investment wing of the ANC. That should not happen. That is our position".

I agree with the Deputy-President on this matter even if the President does not. And given the overwhelming public outcry against corruption in the public service, this is further evidence that ours is a President who is out of touch, and has left the people behind. 

Mr Speaker: the President has failed to demonstrate economic leadership in the midst of a global recession. This further hinders job creation. 

His government proposes two economic plans: the Honourable Manuel's National Development Plan (NDP), and the Honourable Patel's New Growth Path (NGP).

The National Development Plan promotes market-led growth characterised by inclusiveness and private enterprise; while the New Growth Path is geared towards greater state intervention and participation in a mixed economy.

This has led to widespread confusion.

Is the government pro-growth or pro-intervention? 

Is it for attracting investment or entrenching protectionism? 

Is the government in favour of state-led capitalism, the mixed economy, the social market economy, communism, a bit of each, or all of the above? 

Honourable Members: The President's greatest responsibility is to help get young South Africans into work. 

Last year, he set the bold target of putting 500 000 people to work by the end of the year. This deadline came and went. 

Another deadline also came and went: the introduction of the Youth Wage Subsidy.

No one in government or in the DA who supports the Youth Wage Subsidy has ever claimed it would make unemployment disappear. It will, however, give many young people dignity, and a foothold on the ladder of opportunity. 

Two weeks ago, over 3 000 young people marched under the Democratic Alliance banner to Cosatu's House because the union federation is blocking job creation. The President caves into Cosatu even though this Parliament has earmarked the funds for the Youth Wage Subsidy.

For the first time ever, the President announced a policy. It was budgeted for, and the date was set for its implementation, only to be halted because Cosatu opposes it.

Last week, I went to see the country's first Youth Wage Subsidy scheme in action, right here in the City of Cape Town. I met a number of young beneficiaries of this programme, including Xhobani Balasana from Phillipi, whose life has been transformed by this opportunity. Many other young lives could be similarly transformed, if the President had the courage to put the needs of South Africa's people ahead of his own political advancement.

Mr Speaker: the issue of youth unemployment will, perhaps, more than any other, define this Presidency. The pursuit of power has overtaken the pursuit of noble ideals in the Republic. 

While hundreds of thousands of young people are denied the opportunity of the Youth Wage Subsidy, the Presidency has been splurging on the political slush fund that is the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA). 

Funding for the NYDA nearly quadrupled from R100 million in 2009-10 year to nearly R400 million in 2010-11. This was spent on events like the "Let's Defeat Imperialism" youth festival, and something else that involved large numbers of delegates kissing in an open field.

This misuse of public money makes it clear that the President has indeed left the young people of South Africa behind. 

Mr Speaker:

We can see how the failure of leadership is allowing corruption to take root in our country. 

Constitutional democracy is based on accountability and transparency, yet the President has time and again failed the constitutional test of accountability upon which our entire system of government is built.  

A titanic power struggle is enveloping the security services.

When one strips down the never-ending saga of Richard Mdluli - who was again suspended from the Police Service on Sunday - a basic question emerges: 

Why would a head of state allow someone facing serious charges to appear in police uniform and occupy a senior post in the police service in the first place? 

On this occasion, as on so many others, action was only taken court after a case was brought to court by an NGO to suspend Mr Mdluli.

But why does it always fall to our courts to uphold the Constitution and compel the government to do the right thing, while Ministers try to bully them into submission?  

Does doing what is right simply because it is right play any role in the matrix of government anymore? Or have ‘honour' and ‘character' been consigned to oblivion, the misty nostalgia of the Nelson Mandela era? 

Does the Presidency strive to create a culture of accountability in which public officials are the servants and the people are the masters?  

The President's actions - and what he fails to do - are hardening the perception that his own political needs trump service delivery and the rule-of-law.

The President should be using the full powers of his executive office to shine the light of forensic investigation into suspected criminal activity by Mr Mduli and others. Instead Mr Speaker, the President continues to preside over a sinister ‘secret state within the state' at the apex of which he stands. His problem is that he must constantly reshuffle the security services like a deck of cards in order to stay on top.

If the President had applied even a tiny bit of his talent for getting himself out of trouble to some wider national purpose, South Africa would have progressed in leaps and bounds by now.

The Commission of Enquiry into the Arms Deal underlines this point. Why is it that the President finds it so hard to say that Judge Seriti's report will be made available to the public as soon as he receives it? 

Is the Commission merely a public relations exercise? Or does he wish to be seen to being the right thing without actually doing it?

If the President releases the full report, he would not be, as he claims, pre-empting the findings of the Commission. He would be upholding the principles of transparency and accountability, and rebuilding public trust.

As former ANC MP, Andrew Feinstein, pointed out, the people's trust was broken when the previous triple inquiry arms deal report - by the public protector, the auditor-general and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) - was doctored. 

So I ask, Mr Speaker, will the President reconsider his decision and commit in his reply to Parliament tomorrow that he will authorise Judge Seriti to release the full, unexpurgated report to the public as soon as he receives it?  

This issue unfolds within the wider context of South Africa's arms industry. 

Despite the many and great efforts of the Democratic Alliance, it remains difficult to gain information about the workings of our defence force and the South African arms industry. 

And so the people are being left behind by a government that seeks to keep a lid on the truth. 

Mr Speaker: 

The failure of leadership extends to international relations and foreign policy. 

Our President must be the first head of state in history to fly to the United Nations in New York with three jets, and not a single foreign policy brief between them.

Is the President committed to the ‘responsibility to protect' (R2P) in countries like Syria today? Or does he believe a nation's sovereignty is sacred? 

This is what the President suggested when Resolution 1973 on Libya was debated at the UN Security Council.

Do we have an ethical or a realist foreign policy? Are we a shady place for shady people or a lighthouse of democracy to the world? 

Does this government priortise BRICS or Africa, the fast-growing market in the world?  The paradox is that Brazil, India and Russia are benefitting far more from investment opportunities and trade with the rest of than Africa than we are.

This is a because of the President's failure to champion South Africa abroad. 

Mr Speaker:

South Africa is in need of bold leadership now.    

What is to be done? 

The Official Opposition has a responsibility to provide oversight and demand accountability from the government.

And so, above all else, the DA urges the President to define his vision.  
If the President seeks to do so, he must reacquaint himself with the foundational bedrock of the Republic: the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. 

Because, as we have emphasised time and again, it is the government which has let South Africa down, not our human-rights inspired Constitution. 

It is a tragedy for the nation, and the President personally, that the government of the day should seek to overturn the very document that would frame his vision.

Fortunately for our citizens, there is a party of government in South Africa which has demonstrated that it has the ability to lead along the lines of the Constitution. 

More and more South Africans are realising that the ideal of a better life for all might be promised by the ANC, but it is being delivered by the Democratic Alliance, especially where we govern. 

In the Western Cape Provincial Government (WCPG) and in municipalities, like the City of Cape Town, the DA is crafting a new vision of smart and capable government. 

The DA offers an energising theme of government: a belief in the ability of people, helped but not dictated to by the state, to create a strong society.

The clear blue water between the DA and the ANC is that the Western Cape government's mission is to develop ‘policies and practices that strengthen the Constitution'. This is in contrast to the President's words and actions which devalue and denude the Constitution. 

When the DA was elected into office in the same election as the President in 2009, we spelled out our vision for the province in a series of clear mandates. 

They were: to increase economic empowerment; reduce poverty; promote rural development; provide efficient and effective infrastructure; build sustainable human settlements; improve efficiency and effectiveness in health, education, well-being and safety; and provide an effective and integrated public transport system.

Every public servant in the Western Cape was left in no doubt about our determination.

How do we know that? 

Because measurable progress has been made in every single mandate. From improved matric results to more jobs to better housing to safer roads and decent healthcare, the DA government has delivered on our promises.  
 
The DA in government says no matter who you are, no matter where you come from, you deserve a fair chance to live a life you value.

In the end, it all comes down to leadership. A true leader has the ability to inspire her party. The President simply follows his. 

The DA is marching on because people want to live a better life, not just receive more empty ANC promises and corrupt ANC government.

We are marching towards government because we exercise power on behalf of voters, and we never let power use us.  

The ANC government, however, has left the people behind. 

Mr Speaker:

It is clear to every South African that the President's failure to lead has paralysed his ability to govern.

The President is forced to bow before an unelected Cosatu and others. He is unable to drive policy that runs counter to the interests of the disparate factions that brought him to power. And he will never be able to stamp his authority on his government because these factions do not share a common purpose. A President and a government can only lead when it they speak with one voice, and act as one. 

There is an argument that the internal practises of the ANC are an internal issue. 
To those who say that this, I say whoever holds the office of President is first a South African, then a public servant - and only then a member of their political party.  

The President should be President of us all, not just the ANC. And he must govern in the interests of all; not only the ANC and its alliance partners.

Mr Speaker:

I believe the President has failed to provide South Africa with justification as to why he should seek a second term, when his first term has fallen so far short of even the lowest expectations.      

I therefore ask the President to look deep within his heart and answer a difficult question - the most difficult of all. A question that requires honesty and takes courage to answer:

Honourable President: For the sake of our country, will you put aside self-interest and not make yourself available for re-election?

This is what the people of South Africa need, and what many in your party want. 

The greatest test of leadership is to know when to give it up and pass the torch to a new generation.

Mr Speaker:

There are deep divisions in South Africa and in the ANC today, and the President cannot overcome them.

The challenges of government and of getting South Africa's youth into employment require the President to devote every hour of every day for the remainder of his term to dealing with these challenges. 

By declaring himself unavailable for re-election, the President will not face the relentless pressure of trying to secure his position in what is set to be a brutal and protracted struggle for power. He would be free to govern as Head of State, and not be constrained by his party's alliance partners who have done so much to frustrate him.  

If the President made this commitment, he would have an opportunity to put back the undoubted talents of his warm-heartedness, compassion, and conflict resolution into the service of our great nation.  

The next two years do not have to be as bad as the last three. The President could still, at this late hour, have a role to play in binding the nation's wounds, and healing our past in the remainder of this Parliament.

South Africa can still prevail and prosper, and its bounds grow ever wider - for ours is a great country.

Issued by the DA, May 30 2012

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter