Reply by Western Cape Premier Helen Zille to the debate on her State of the Province address, Cape Town, February 23 2010

The PREMIER: Mr Deputy Speaker, the hon Leader of the Opposition [Lynne Brown] started out by addressing the concept of the open, opportunity society for all. This is a concept that has evolved over 300 years and has been demonstrated, especially in the last century, to have been the only sustainable way to uplift a society and systematically reduce poverty.

She clearly does not understand that, Mr Deputy Speaker, and nor does the hon member Mr Ozinsky, but they could both, in fact, ask the national Minister of Finance because he understands it perfectly well. He gave an excellent exposition in his Budget Speech of the open, opportunity society for all and much of that Budget reflected the spending priorities of an open, opportunity society for all. In fact, it is hardly any wonder that the ANC is borrowing so much from the DA's policy proposals.

Increasingly under the watch of the national Minister in the Presidency for the National Planning Commission and the national Minister of Finance, that tendency will continue, and it will be a good thing, Mr Deputy Speaker, if the hon Leader of the Opposition comes to understand those concepts from her colleagues in the ANC. This is because, when I listened to that speech, which was the only substantial speech made by any government representative in that assembly, it was quite obvious that the DA had had more influence on the ANC's Budget than any one of the tripartite coalition partners.

In fact, if one wants to look at any quality, one just has to look at what has happened to the Gini coefficient under the ANC and, most particularly, the focus now on the open, opportunity society for all should help us rectify that.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the hon Leader of the Opposition spoke about the developmental state. It is interesting that in a party that cannot even get a charge sheet right, and that cannot even register its candidates for by-elections on time, they still continue to talk about the developmental state. With every single one of the state-owned enterprises in chaos, Mr Deputy Speaker, with the public and the taxpayer having had to bail out state-owned enterprises now to the tune of R260 billion, the ANC still talks about the developmental state!

However, the reason why people such as Julius Malema oppose the open, opportunity society for all is that they know that they would stand no chance in that context of getting R140 million in tenders over three years. They can do that only in the closed crony society for comrades, where they are in a position to use their political connections to get very rich.

So, when the ANC speaks about the developmental state, we must look at the state-owned enterprises and we must look at the small group of cronies who have become multimillionaires, if not billionaires. We must also look at the decline in education and all of the mechanisms that could really create sustainable affirmative action. We must look at their deterioration under the ANC and then understand exactly why they do not want to let go of the closed crony society for a small group of comrades only. But soon the voters will get wise and they will do what voters do in a democracy and tell their Government what they think of them.

Every single example the hon Leader of the Opposition mentioned, from computers in schools to our progressive ARV policy to deal with HIV and Aids, were all started under the DA in this Province.

However, the hon Leader of the Opposition asked a valid question - she asked how one spreads the benefits. Every single one of our policies, and our entire thrust and vision, are aimed at spreading the benefits of growth and development. That is what underlies every single thing we do.

The hon Leader of the Opposition looked at our strategy to rebuild the CBD, which we have taken massive steps to achieve in the last six years.  People come to the Western Cape and they compare what the City of Cape Town looks like with what every ANC-run city looks like, and they cannot believe the difference, because the collapse of a CBD, in fact, means the collapse of the urban economy. It is the goose that lays the golden egg for everyone, and every single ANC-run city and town is facing the progressive collapse of their CBD and the progressive collapse of their urban economy.

The success of countries, Mr Deputy Speaker - the success of countries - depends on the success of their cities. The best analysis of the role of cities states that the role of cities in a modern economy is to link their people, the country's people, to a functional economy, and the country's economy to the world. That is why, if one wants growth and development, one has to protect one's CBD, and that is why the collapse of the CBD creates impoverishment for everybody. Mr Deputy Speaker, the City of Cape Town has the only functional, prospering CBD left of any major city in South Africa.

However, it is not only that. Let me tell the House it applies to every single DA-run municipality across this province. The hon member Mr Ozinsky is having a little chuckle to himself, but let us see who has the last laugh after tomorrow's by-elections.

Mr Peter Bruce of Business Day wrote, after he had not been to the Western Cape for a very long time, and I quote:

"As most ANC-run cities broadly subside and most DA-run ones broadly prosper, the political effect becomes a little like compound interest. You don't notice it at first, but after a while it really begins to matter, a lot."

It is about doing one's job, about everyone's doing their jobs properly, and that "compound interest" benefits everybody. It is the rising tide that lifts the ships, and our plan and our 10 strategic objectives are all designed to ensure that that tide lifts the poorest of the poor. And the poorest of the poor know that. That is why, in increasing numbers, they are coming to our province - they know that this is not only the Western Cape, but truly the Cape of Good Hope. [Interjections.]

Mr Deputy Speaker, let us talk a little about power abuse. The hon Leader of the Opposition, like many other speakers on that side of the House, spoke about the "blue light brigade" - they should have spoken about the "blue light bullies"! They spoke about the cavalcade and they suggested it was a trivial matter to raise in a State of the Province Address.

Mr Deputy Speaker, let me tell the House it is a very substantial matter. Power abuse is a very substantial matter indeed. And to ordinary South Africans there is no more obvious symbol of power abuse than cavalcades of politicians driving through the traffic, sirens blaring, pushing people out of the way because they do not believe that they need, like ordinary citizens, to wait in the evening traffic, or because, like Julius Malema, they believe they are above the law. When a policeman stopped Mr Malema's cavalcade he said, "Do you not know who I am?" Or it is when members of "blue light brigades" shoot out people's tyres, or when they cause accidents in which people are very seriously injured, or when they shoot to kill. Mr Deputy Speaker, the blue light bullies have come to represent all of that. They are the tangible and visible manifestation of that.

And that is a manifestation of power abuse that goes far deeper. It reflects the firing of a national Director of Public Prosecutions because he refused to withdraw charges against Jacob Zuma. It reflects the manipulation, the cynical manipulation, of the Judicial Services Commission to get an ANC majority to start manipulating the independence of the judiciary. Every single time a citizen of this country sees a "blue light brigade", they think of the criminal state. They think of Robert Mugabe!

It was absolutely rich, Mr Deputy Speaker, to hear hon members on that side of the House comparing President Zuma to President Barak Obama! Of course, presidents are entitled to a cavalcade. But they, like everyone else, have to obey the rules of the road. In fact, they, above everyone else, have to obey the rules of the road. They are not above the law.

Mr Deputy Speaker, can the House imagine what would have happened if President Barak Obama's convoy had shot and killed someone? Can the House imagine what would have happened if President Barak Obama's blue light convoy had seen someone gesturing at it, jumped out, covered the person's head with a black bag, bundled him into a car, taken him to the police station and kept him in the cells overnight? Can the House imagine this? It would have been world news! There would have been a fundamental outcry and President Barak Obama would not have survived the next election, because everyone in a democracy understands the implications of power abuse and the police state.

That is why, Mr Deputy Speaker, this is not a trivial issue and it is one that certainly belongs in a State of the Province Address because, let me tell the House, we have a mandate from the people in this province and while we are the Government of this province we will not allow power abuse. We will not allow anybody to be above the law, not even the President.

There was a President who understood that very profoundly; he is a President to whom we all pay great tribute, and he is a President who has the love of every single South African for the role he played in building one nation with one future, a slogan that is the slogan of our party on this side of the House. [Interjections.]

In fact, Mr Deputy Speaker, there is an article that members on the opposite side of the House would be well advised to read. It is an article in the Weekend Argus in which the commentator was noting the following, and I quote:

"Wailing motorcades in South Africa are comparatively new phenomenon. When he was still president, Nelson Mandela recounted in a TV interview how he had been asked by one of his grandchildren why he didn't have a motorcade. Mandela said he had replied, ‘Oh, no, we don't do that in South Africa. We leave that kind of thing to Robert Mugabe'."

Mr Deputy Speaker, the hon member Mr Skwatsha mentioned Robert Mugabe and asked whether I would dare to stop him if he came to South Africa and drove like that in his motorcade, and the answer is yes! We would not allow Robert Mugabe to be above the law in the Western Cape or in South Africa. [Interjections.] And when President Obama comes here, his motorcade will behave with respect and dignity towards the people of South Africa and our rules. [Interjections.]

Let me say this simply, Mr Deputy Speaker. Several hon members on that side of the House said we do not have the powers to do anything about it. I think what we should do is let the Constitutional Court decide that, because I am sure that the ANC will fight tooth and nail to keep their sirens, to keep their motorcades, and to keep their scores of bodyguards and outriders who jump out of their cars and put black bags over people's heads if they gesture towards the motorcade. I think they have started a new fashion, because every time the motorcade goes past anyone now, if they look inside the car next to them, they will see fingers raised in all kinds of directions.

However, let me tell the House this, Mr Deputy Speaker. If one looks at the functional areas of concurrent national and provincial legislative competence, one will see that road traffic regulations are a concurrent competence between national and provincial government. [Interjections.] The House will also see that provincial roads and traffic are an exclusive provincial legislative competence. It is also a fundamental mistake, and it is the kind of mistake that the ANC is very prone to, to believe that in areas of concurrent competence national legislation automatically trumps provincial legislation. That is not true. The Constitution is very clear. National legislation does not trump provincial legislation, unless it is essential to have uniform standards on an issue all over the country, or unless a province does not have the capacity to implement its legislation.

Now let me say that I am sure the ANC and all their self-important politicians will want to fight tooth and nail to be able to uniformly exercise their power abuse across the country. But we will fight tooth and nail to apply the rule of law and due process and respect for the citizens in this province.

The saddest irony, Mr Deputy Speaker, is that blue lights used in South Africa to symbolise the State coming to help the citizen. [Interjections.] They were a symbol of emergency vehicles coming to apply the rule of law, to catch criminals, and to assist people in an emergency and after an accident. That is what blue lights should symbolise in a democracy. Instead, in South Africa, the blue lights have come to symbolise power abuse in its most naked form.

Those blue lights now symbolise exactly what the ANC is doing to our Constitution at every level, turning the institutions of the Constitution into an extension of the ruling party, so those institutions cannot check and balance power abuse but they become levers of power abuse.

Our role in the DA, Mr Deputy Speaker, is to prevent South Africa going down the road of the abusive and failed state, and I give the House the undertaking that we will take that responsibility very seriously indeed. To spend 186 words on that subject, Mr Deputy Speaker, out of a total over 7 300 words in my speech setting out our plan, is surely not spending too much time on dealing with the primary symbol of power abuse in the new South Africa.

Mr Deputy Speaker, it is also quite obvious that the hon member Mr Skwatsha does not understand the concept of the open, opportunity society. He would not want that because it would undermine the tenderpreneurs, from which he has not been too far removed. What the ANC and all its tenderpreneurs want to protect is that small elite circle of politically connected people being enriched by the State. And the House should not simply believe me, Mr Deputy Speaker. The House should believe the Deputy President, Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, who in a rare moment of candidness said, and I quote:

"Every project in government has been designed to make someone in the ANC rich"

That is the truth. That is the closed crony society for comrades only, and that is the cycle that we on this side of the House will break by the open, opportunity society for all. Mr Deputy Speaker, the closed crony society manipulates outcomes in favour of its friends and political allies and family. We see that all the time. Every day we see that and we believe in broadening opportunities through policies that really empower people.

I was amazed, Mr Deputy Speaker, to hear that the hon member Mr Skwatsha and I have more in common than I thought. The hon member Mr Skwatsha said that his father was a petrol attendant. Well, my uncle was also a petrol attendant for many, many years, but my father was not that high up on the ladder, for the information of the hon member Mr Skwatsha. My father was a manual labourer - he dug trenches at Modderfontein Dynamite Factory. Then he also used to deliver bread for Atlas Bakery. [Interjections.] When I was born, he was educating himself through Unisa day and night because he did not have a qualification.

The hon member Mr Skwatsha is quite right. The laws of this country did massively disadvantage black people and did give people like my father an open opportunity. From the first day I was politically conscious, my father told me how wicked and how bad the system of apartheid was. He was in the forefront, and so was my mother, of challenging that system, because he knew what it was to have an opportunity.

He knew what it was to be able to move up from being a manual labourer at the Modderfontein dynamite factory to being able to educate himself through Unisa - a wonderful, wonderful opportunity - and to start a small business and make a success of it. He said everyone in South Africa deserved that opportunity. He was the one who, because he had had an opportunity, schooled me in the vision of the open, opportunity society for all.

He said to me that there was no better opportunity than a good education. That is why, having not had one himself, nor my mother, they drummed it into my head to make use of my educational opportunities. That is why, to this day, I am so passionate about education as a tool of empowerment. That is why we have to ensure that those barriers to that key opportunity are removed. That is why it is my number one priority in the province.

Mr Deputy Speaker, then the hon member Mr Skwatsha moved to the question of FIFA and the 2010 World Cup. It is true that the ANC chose to put the new stadium in Green Point. It is true. And it is true that I thought it would be better placed in a disadvantaged community, where it could act as leverage for economic growth and development to advantage the poor. That is all true. And it is true that when FIFA said that that would not meet their requirements, I looked very closely at Newlands and thought it would be more cost-effective if we could adjust an existing stadium to accommodate 68 000 people, rather than build an entire new stadium. That is true.

It is also true that when Mr Sepp Blatter made it absolutely clear that the choice for a semi-final for the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup was not between Newlands and Green Point, but between Green Point and Johannesburg, that I said: well, then so be it. It must be Green Point because we want the World Cup, we want it to be a success, and we want it to leverage economic growth. I would have preferred the stadium to have been in a poor area, because that would have spread the benefits far more to the poor, but if the ANC insists on Green Point and FIFA insists on Green Point, then so be it; we cannot lose out on the World Cup. All that is documented fact.

Mr Deputy Speaker, it is also documented fact that I asked for a business plan. I asked for a business plan because I was convinced that the projected R1 billion that the ANC had projected for the cost of the stadium, was a complete underestimate.

When I asked for a business plan the sky fell in - as if it was such an outrageous thing to do. Well, history has proved me correct. In fact, the escalations on those stadia make it imperative that we run the world's best World Cup ever to ensure that we get the best possible sustainable returns in growing tourism and repeat visits, and in sustainable development for our country.

Mr Deputy Speaker, once the decision had been taken for Green Point, it was I and the DA that persuaded the residents of Green Point to accept that stadium. They were opposed to it in large numbers. If they had taken us to court Cape Town would have been out of the World Cup. The reason that they did not take us to court was because I personally spent hours and nights speaking to representatives of the Ratepayers' Associations and other community-based organisations there, persuading them to accept the stadium in the interests of the country. If I had not raised the guarantees that we needed for bridging finance, if that should be necessary, we would never have had it either. Hon members should ask Sepp Blatter if they want to know why there is a stadium in Cape Town; he knows.

There are few people in the Province who know as much about housing as the hon Minister of Housing does. It is outrageous that anybody accuses the hon Minister of being a political crony of mine. He is a relative of Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Can one imagine the ANC appointing anybody from the royalty of the DA to a top position? It would not happen, because it would be the wrong political connection. We are very proud to have the hon Minister of Housing as a member of our party.

When he worked in my department, he was not even a member of the DA. I got to know him through my extensive work in Khayelitsha over many months and years, and when I met him I thought, "Here is a dedicated, committed intellectual who understands hard work and service to his people." Of course, those were exactly the qualifications required for the ANC to expel him. [Interjections.] But when I asked him to come and work as an adviser in my Office, he said to me, "I want you to know that I am not a member of your party. I am a member of another party." I said, "I am not asking you to be here because of your party-political affiliation; I am asking you to be here because I respect your intellect and I respect the value you can add to my insight." I can assure hon members that that is exactly what the hon Minister of Housing has done.

Mr Deputy Speaker, more than that. Through working together he slowly became convinced about the values of the open, opportunity society for all because he saw them in practice. He came to many meetings. And now the hon member Mr Ozinsky has suggested that the hon Minister of Housing is there because of the colour of his skin. Allow me to tell him ...

Mr M OZINSKY: I did not say that. I said that was your connection.

The PREMIER: You said he was "black leader" ... [Interjections.]

Mr M OZINSKY: I said ...

The PREMIER: I heard that.

Mr M OZINSKY: ... he ...

The PREMIER: No, no.

Mr M OZINSKY: ... wants a black leader.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! [Interjections.]

Mr M OZINSKY: He wants a black leader. He said ... [Inaudible.]

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

Mr M OZINSKY: He said ... [Inaudible.] ... blacks.

The LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Max, Max, Max. Relax, Max.

The PREMIER: Relax, Max. That is a good phrase! Thank you, hon Leader of the Opposition for that! It will be often used!

Mr M OZINSKY: Speak the truth and you will get there.

The PREMIER: I am speaking to the truth.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the truth is this. One day the hon Minister of Housing said to me that when one is in the ANC one does not go into a meeting to listen to somebody else's argument. One goes into a meeting knowing who one has to speak against, who one has to undermine and who one has to promote, irrespective of the merit of the argument. That is the closed, crony society for comrades only. [Interjections.] Yes, that is exactly true. On this side of the House we actually listen to the quality of each other's arguments. And it was the quality of the hon Minister of Housing's arguments that brought him up in the DA to where he is today.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I would very much like to hear what the ANC has to say about a housing policy that results in a situation where up to 90% of the original beneficiaries are not in the houses. They are now, in fact, occupied by people who did not qualify for a housing subsidy in the first place. The millions and millions of rands in housing subsidies that are being poured into people who did not qualify for subsidies in the first place are the legacy of the ANC housing policy, with the poor beneficiaries back in their shacks, back on a housing waiting-list and back in pitiful circumstances.

It is the hon Minister of Housing who understands that contradiction and why that undermines the very foundation of housing policy, and why down-market raiding again benefits the closed crony group of ANC comrades.

Ek dra graag my dank ook aan die agb Minister van Kultuursake en Sport vir sy bydrae. Ek moet sê, hy is heeltemal reg oor die grondeise. Hy het gesê daar is meer as 1 000 wat nog afgehandel behoort te word. Dit is die werk van me Beverley Jansen en die Streekgrondeisekommissie.

Land reform is a national competence as can be seen in the Constitution. But let me also remind the House that the City has threatened a formal dispute, an intergovernmental dispute against the Regional Land Claims Commission, because they are so incompetent to do their work - which applies to the Land Claims Commission across the entire country as a whole. That is just another example of the closed crony society for deployed comrades only. That is how one gets into the Land Claims Commission and that is why it is failing.

We can ask about the gatekeepers of District Six and why we have battled against them in vain for such a long time to get anything going, which is why we have now threatened an intergovernmental dispute against the Regional Land Claims Commission unless they do what they have to do to return District Six to the rightful beneficiaries.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I come to the hon Ms Ntwanambi. I want to say to her that we do not have to say how well the Western Cape is doing; the national Ministers keep saying so. The national Ministers keep coming to me and saying how well the hon MECs are doing in their respective portfolios, and in the national lekgotlas they keep on drawing on the Western Cape for examples of progress and competence.

Even when the presidential hotline was being discussed - the hotline initiative of President Zuma - it was found that the Western Cape had far more successful resolutions of complaints on the presidential hotline than any other province. I do not know by exactly how much, but I think it was probably double the nearest rival. And President Zuma himself said that this was the Western Cape, it was governed by the DA, and one should look at how they were doing on the hotline.

I agree with the hon member Ms Ntwanambi that it is a complete indignity to grow up without a toilet. I know, because the primary school I was at was a school that had only pit latrines. It had no electricity and it had corrugated iron classrooms. We had children at that school who were so poor that they came barefoot. They did not even have socks to wear, Mr Deputy Speaker, and that is why shoes were not compulsory in my school, because we did not want to distinguish between people whose families could afford shoes and those who could not. We had two or three grades to each class and two languages in each class.

Then my father's business started succeeding and he was able to send me to a better school when I reached high school. When I came there, I was far ahead of all the other children in my grade who had been to some of the best schools in Johannesburg. Mr Deputy Speaker, the teachers we had had in that poor school had been so dedicated and so good that by the time I went to high school I was actually in advance of the other children! That taught me something about dedication and commitment in poor circumstances.

That does not mean for one moment that I am justifying inequality in resources, and that is why, Mr Deputy Speaker, there has been a massive drive, started by me when I was the MEC for Education, to massively redistribute resources in favour of poor schools. If one looks at the statistics of Prof Servaas van den Berg, one will see how much redistribution there has been to the social services and then, crucially, to education and the poorest schools.

And, Mr Deputy Speaker, we have to ask why the results keep going down. There is no correlation at all between the growing input into those schools and the deteriorating results in the schools. Now we have to start asking ourselves some very serious questions, because there must be other factors, and I will come to those other factors when I deal with the hon member Mr Jacobs in my reply.

The hon member Ms Ntwanambi asked us what we were doing about the disabled. Well, Mr Deputy Speaker, the House will recall what the ANC did in relation to the young man in KwaZulu-Natal who wanted to study sign language as a matric subject. Of course, the ANC forbade him to do so. We are driving sign language as a matric subject and we are absolutely committed to ensuring that sign language gets the respect it deserves.

When I got 200 free tickets to go to a match at the new stadium in Green Point, I did not hand them out to the DA or my friends or my cronies or anybody else like that.  What I did was to make sure that everybody in the House, including the hon members on the other side, got their tickets - I certainly offered them to all of them. Then I ensured that 120 tickets went to disabled people. [Interjections.] If those hon members did not get those tickets, it is because the Whippery on that side of the House is not working. We definitely made those tickets available. [Interjections.] That is a point!

The MINISTER OF HEALTH: [Inaudible.]

The PREMIER: Mr Deputy Speaker, the hon Minister of Health said that someone must have stolen the tickets before they got to the hon members, and we can imagine who it was.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

Mr M SKWATSHA: This side of ... [Inaudible.]

The PREMIER: Well, someone must have stolen them, as the hon Minister of Health said, before they got to those hon members.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the hon member Ms Ntwanambi also spoke about early childhood development. Let me tell her that the best thing we can do for early childhood development is to stop teenage pregnancies. That is because, if there is one thing that teenage pregnancies do, it is that they cause underdevelopment in children.

I watched a television programme recently, in which a 14-year-old young woman came onto the television and said, "I am a victim of teenage pregnancy." I thought to myself, "Yes, in many ways you are a victim, but not in the way that you think." She was saying that now she could not go out with her friends and she could not go out to parties - she was a victim of teenage pregnancy. That is what she said on television. I said, "You are a victim because you have destroyed your opportunities. Your child is certainly a victim of teenage pregnancy and so is your poor mother, who is probably going to have to look after your child if you ever want to continue your education." The most important thing we have to do for early childhood development is stop children having children. That is what we have to do.

Equal to that in importance is to start making fathers take responsibility for the children they father and not walk away from them, start paying maintenance and not use President Zuma as an example. That is, in fact, because unless fathers take direct responsibility for their children in more ways than just paying maintenance - in being there for them, in reading to them, in being role models for them, in teaching them something about values - we cannot even talk about early childhood development. And it is about time the ANC started talking about those things.

I would like to reply to the hon member Mr Ncedana by saying, yes, there are many parts of this province that I hang my head about. The situation is dreadful in many places and I will never justify that. On the contrary, I will work day and night to try to improve those conditions, as will everybody on this side of the House.

Just yesterday I was also in Mazakhane in Gans Bay, Mr Deputy Speaker, and, yes, there are some terrible conditions. Yes, I saw them. However, it is also true that the people said to me there, "Thank you! The DA here brought us electricity. The DA brought us our services. Thank you very much. Things are getting better under the DA." That is what the people in Mazakhane said to me.

We are committed to improving people's lives and, as Peter Bruce said, it is "a little like compound interest. You don't notice it at first, ..." Water, sewerage, electricity all begin to add up to the much vaunted better life for all that comes under the DA's policies, and not under the ANC.

Again in relation to the hon member Mr Ncedana, I will not say anything that I meant to say here, because I do not want to be sarcastic to him. However, the truth is that in the city and throughout the province we inherited literally hundreds - literally hundreds - of unserviced informal settlements from the ANC. And as they have made quite clear in national lekgotlas, we are making far more progress with those services - far more progress with those services - than any other province in South Africa.

The hon member Mr Ncedana quoted the Freedom Charter. Well, let us be sure that those of us who do quote the Freedom Charter know what it says and know how to put our money where our mouths are. The Freedom Charter the ANC always claims is their document. The DA claims the Constitution is its document, and we live by the Constitution and we apply the Constitution. [Interjections.]

The point that I made about early childhood development and children's playing with beer crates I repeat here. Fathers must take responsibility for their children and not leave their beer bottles and beer crates lying around.

Let us come to what the hon member Mr Ncedana quoted to me about 2011 and the building of schools. To be absolutely clear, Mr Deputy Speaker, let me repeat word for word what I did say. I said, and I quote:

"Soon, tenders will be advertised to build 12 new schools and 200 new classrooms at 50 schools, starting in 2011."

Let there be no mistake about what I actually said, because I do not want any straw man arguments in later months.

It is true that I did not say enough about rural development. I think that that was a flaw in my speech, Mr Deputy Speaker, and that flaw will be corrected. I also did not say enough about agriculture, but I can tell hon members this. When it comes to rural municipalities that have no revenue, we need to look at exactly what the ANC does in the municipalities that they govern with the limited sources of revenue that there are. The Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism answered that question adequately in relation to Mayor Mvimbi who is not just a provincial disgrace, but a national disgrace. In fact, I am also sure that Mr George Seitisho is now an adviser on corruption to a national Minister!

Mnr die Adjunkspeaker, ek dra my dank oor aan die agb lid mnr Bekker. Hy sê tereg dat veralgemening 'n baie groot fout is, en dit geld nie net die landbou nie.

Ek wil ook nie veralgemeen nie. Ons het in hierdie land 'n baie goeie nuwe nasionale Minister van Landbou. Sy weet wat die boere vir Suid-Afrika beteken. Sy werk ook uitstekend saam met die agb Minister van Landbou. Die nasionale Minister van Landbou sê, en sy sê dit in die openbaar, dat die nasionale Regering alles in sy vermoë moet doen om boere op die plase te hou.

There are many other countries in Africa that are looking for our farmers, and that are desperately keen to have food production capacity. The national Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries knows that when they are gone it will too late to rebuild that sector. I do not want to generalise about the ANC either, because people and Ministers like the one above also understand the open, opportunity society for all, understand production and development, and understand how productivity on the land is an essential component of sustainable development. She and the national Minister of Finance understand that.

I now come to the hon member Mr Jacobs. He looked very carefully at schools and why some of them are so bad. When one looks at all the variables, one will see that what distinguishes good and bad schools is the quality of their teachers.

The biggest brake on quality education is a trade union known as the South African Democratic Teachers' Union. The President said he was amazed to find that in weak schools teachers teach for only three hours a day - I could have told him that! His labour laws protect them in their doing so! In good schools teachers not only teach for seven hours a day, but they stay and voluntarily supervise all sorts of extramural activities until well into the night!

I have dealt with Sadtu teachers. Certainly when I did do so, and the school day was extended to 14:30 in the afternoon - which is a kind of half day for teachers in good schools - Sadtu teachers came to me and they were very angry with me! They said, "Why are you extending the school day to 14:30 in the afternoon? What must we do from 12:30? Must we sit around and wait?

That demonstrates to the House what the difference is between a good and a bad school, and the speech of the hon member Mr Jacobs will have much more credibility when Sadtu teachers start sending their own children to schools where there are a majority of Sadtu teachers. Then all of that rhetoric will have a little more credibility.

I want to ask Sadtu the following questions. Are they prepared to teach for seven hours a day and to stay for extramural activities, which children need to keep them off the streets and help their development? Are they prepared to mark papers after hours? When I went to schools with a majority of Sadtu teachers - and I am not making this up - I found that they would do the examinations early in the term so that they could spend the rest of the term marking papers, so they did not have to do it in the holidays! This was while the children milled around in the school and did nothing, losing valuable time! Hardly any of them ever came near to finishing the syllabus, Mr Deputy Speaker. Are they prepared to prepare their lessons and to make sure that these are presented in a logical way? Are they prepared to test whether their children comprehend what they are saying? If Sadtu gives a commitment to that, one will see the kind of progress we will make in education

There are, of course, good teachers in Sadtu, but tragically they are the minority in that particular union. Good teachers of all races have abandoned Sadtu for other unions like Naptosa, because they cannot stand the dragging-down to the lowest common denominator effect of Sadtu.

Then we wonder why we cannot get those schools out of a rut, we wonder why we cannot get real opportunities to all, and we wonder why we cannot get the best affirmative action - which is a decent education - working. We then have to have the closed, crony system for tenderpreneurs of the ANC and the Sadtu comrades, because that is their substitute for giving real opportunities to their children.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the most shocking statistic in the whole of the new South Africa is this. Since 1995, 42% of all days lost to strike activity were accounted for by the South Africa Democratic Teachers' Union! Sir, that is 42% of all days lost to strikes. How scandalous is that? How scandalous is that in a democracy in which we are trying to create opportunities for all? No wonder that we are all going backwards!

Mr M OZINSKY: It was one big strike!

The PREMIER: One big strike, one big mess! That is what education under Sadtu is! It pains me to have to say this, but that is why our children's opportunities are closing down, and that is why we will introduce inspection and accountability in schools, and performance contracts with principals and with teachers, and we will hold them to those.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the hon member Mr Harris went through many items and I agree with him. He is right to say that cadre deployment is the surest route to the failed state and the criminal state, and that is why we see the financial chaos and the financial collapse.

The hon member Ms Paulse is quite right when she says that after 16 years of democracy one cannot blame everything on apartheid. In fact, while I do not often agree with what the President says - although he always agrees with what I say ... [Laughter.] ... - I do agree with him when he says that after 16 years of democracy one has to stop blaming absolutely everything on apartheid. He is quite right.

The hon member Mr Ozinsky laughed, but I have never yet had a one-on-one meeting with the President where he has not agreed with everything I have said, and where he has not started adopting things like our dashboards and other systems. In fact, next time I see him I will take a DA membership form and ask him to sign it, because he agrees with everything I ever say! [Interjections.

An HON MEMBER: Especially for him to say he likes the hon Premier.

The PREMIER: Well, I keep a good distance, I promise that hon member! [Laughter.] [Interjections.] Absolutely.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the hon member Mr Majola, who did not speak in his capacity as the Deputy Speaker, spoke about how ad hoc dashboard issues are and how we respond to the issues. I thank him.

The hon member Ms Cupido raised the issue of Blikkiesdorp. Of course, living in conditions like that is dreadful. However, we picked those people up from the pavement where they had been driven by ANC policies.

But let me ask the hon member Ms Cupido this. Will she help us release Wingfield for GAP housing without the Defence Force's asking us for over R1 billion in compensation? Will she help us with releasing Youngsfield for GAP housing without the Military's demanding billions of rands in compensation? Will she help us release Transnet land, where we can make hundreds of thousands of housing opportunities come true, well-located land, without the insistence of this parastatal - of a Government that claims to be pro-poor - on market-related prices, which are totally unaffordable? Let that Government start putting its money where its mouth is. Let us start using Military land to help us with our housing backlog and let us start using acres and acres of land in prime locations under the ownership of parastatals for their pro-poor policies. Let them start doing that.

I thought that the hon member Ms Cupido made a very important suggestion, which I will take up and I think it is a very good one, and that is to have a special task force on human trafficking. It is a good idea. We certainly will take that up within our competencies under the Constitution.

As far as the Vorentoe Primary School is concerned, we are doing a great deal of rationalisation of underutilised schools and we have a major plan for intervention to help skills development and deal with the drug crisis precisely in one such school in Ravensmead. I cannot recall if it was Vorentoe Primary School or another school, but we have a plan exactly like that.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the hon member Ms Cupido then spoiled her good speech by arguing that I did nothing about the drug pandemic when I was Mayor of Cape Town. I would just like to remind the hon member that that portfolio was under the ACDP. In fact, they demanded that portfolio as part of the coalition agreement. I agree that we made no progress under the ACDP, but we have made some good progress now, and it took the DA to salvage that mess.

Ek bedank die agb lid me Hartnick vir die voorstelle vir die platteland. Ek gee absoluut toe dat ek nie genoeg aandag aan plattelandse ontwikkeling in my Rede gegee het nie. Ek wens haar hartlik geluk met haar huweliksherdenking. Dié van ons wat met goeie lewensmaats geseën is, weet elke dag wat ‘n gawe dit is en hoe onvervangbaar dit is. Mag die soete herinneringe aan haar man haar altyd deur die lewe begelei.

Die LEIER VAN DIE OPPOSISIE: Hoor, hoor!

Die PREMIER: Mnr die Adjunkspeaker, ek bedank die agb lid mnr Von Brandis vir sy bydrae oor vervoer. Die agb Minister van Vervoer en Publieke Werke sal dit baie waardeer. Ek sal vir die agb Minister sê dat hy baie mooi vir hom ingestaan het, en ook op ‘n baie mooi kalm manier. Ek bedank hom vir die bydrae.

The hon member Ms Beerwinkel advised me to underpromise and overdeliver. Let me suggest that she should ask the President to do that. We will all remember that in his first State of the Nation Address last year he promised one million jobs. I acknowledge, and I will say so again, that the targets that we have set out in our plans ... [Interjections.] ... are stretch targets. They are not cosy, comfortable targets, like an ANC performance management system. They are stretch targets. I have not forced a single target on any one of the hon Ministers here or absent today. [Interjections.] Our hon Ministers set their own targets.

In fact, Mr Deputy Speaker, when some of those targets came to me I asked them, "Are you sure this is achievable?" They said to me, "It will be very difficult, but we will do our best." We believe that we have to have these stretch targets, because we will then all be extended and we will not be tempted to run after extraneous issues. Every single one of these targets was set by the hon Ministers themselves, and they will answer for them.

I will come to the point that the hon member Ms Beerwinkel made about the President when I reply briefly to the hon member Mr Ozinsky. However, I must also tell her that this Government is not a branch office of the ANC.

We have heard about the National Audit Policy, but we have also heard about developmental evaluation and what a huge flop that was, which could not even get ANC-aligned teachers into the classroom for seven hours.  When one goes to those schools, one will see big pictures of ANC leaders on the walls and no education happening. I want to tell the hon member Ms Beerwinkel that that is just as much a symbol of power abuse as the blue light brigade. Ronald Swartz has now been deployed to another job - that shows a person cadre deployment in action and the closed crony society in practice. [Interjections.]

Let me come now to the point that the hon member Ms Beerwinkel made, with blatant disregard for the truth, regarding the function at Leeuwenhof. She knows that last year the ANC, in fact, held two functions there, and this year we were committed to one function until it proved impossible to get the disaggregated statistics from the national department. Because the function had already been arranged, we went ahead with it. I was very, very unhappy, but we had to arrange another function and I said that it had to happen as soon as possible - not many weeks later, as long as it took the ANC last year to get it together. It is complete hypocrisy and double standards to raise that point, because last year, under the ANC, they did exactly the same and, in fact, this year we did our very level best not to do so.

The LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Did I have two functions ... [Inaudible.]

The PREMIER: The hon Leader of the Opposition was not the Premier then; it was under Mr Rasool that that happened. [Interjections.]

Mr Deputy Speaker, I also wish to say this. We could not get the statistics for a whole 10 days. We were hoping to hold the event the very next week and it was impossible to get the disaggregated statistics from the national department. Next year, even if I have to do the award ceremony in March, I will wait till the national department gets its act together and releases all the statistics, so that we can build one nation with one future, despite the national department's total inefficiency.

Mr Deputy Speaker, what the hon member Ms Beerwinkel had to say here today was about as true as what she had to say about her health when she was boarded from the education profession. That is disgraceful and I think that we need to go into that in some more detail to look at the calibre of people on the other side of the House.

I was fascinated to hear her racial rhetoric - she is in the right party for that now. The ANC is the party of racial nationalism. All racial nationalists belong together - the Julius Malemas and all of the others who play the race card and pump the issues. That is the place where racial nationalists belong, and they belong together.

The hon member Ms Bevu said that I was silent on the STPs. We have heard a lot in this House about the STPs, but then we heard a lot about the STPs even before I came here. We heard a lot about Rasool's army. We heard a lot about how Premier Rasool and his colleagues were abusing state resources to advance their party-political purposes. We did not hear that from the DA; we heard that from the ANC. We heard that and many, many other things. Now the hon Minister of Health has tabled a motion in this Parliament to get to the truth, and get to the truth we will - the wide truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Yes, we believe in broad-based black economic empowerment. We believe in broad-based empowerment for everyone, not in the closed crony system for tenderpreneurs only. That is a policy that we are applying with great effect where we govern.

I agree with the hon member Ms Bevu that people should not be dying of curable diseases. I agree with that. It is tragic that they are, but if more people took more responsibility to prevent preventable diseases, we would have much more money to spend on curable diseases. In fact, 80% of the burden of disease relates to diseases that people can choose not to get if they take decisions and if they live wisely. That is a burden on the Fiscus, and that is what we have to get to. We have to get to the point where individuals take responsibility to ensure that they do not get diseases that are preventable. One day I will still get it right to ensure that the hon Minister of Health stops smoking, because that would be an excellent example to the people of the Western Cape.

The MINISTER OF HEALTH: Who said I am smoking?

Die PREMIER: Dalk rook die agb Minister skelm, net af en toe.

Mr Deputy Speaker, that is what we have to do, and that is why there is such an outcry when the President continues having unsafe sex, because that sets an example which is making millions of people sick throughout our country.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I do not want to spend much time on the hon member Mr Ozinsky, except to welcome him back to the House. There is a word in Afrikaans, "skaam", and it is now a universal word in South Africa. When one says one is "skaam", it means one has a bit of shame. When one has been fired as the Chief Whip, suspended from the House, facing a disciplinary hearing for a second time and one is attending the session of the House because of the good offices of one's parole officer, one gets a bit "skaam" and one reins oneself in. Not the hon member Mr Ozinsky. However, we like the hon member Mr Ozinsky, because after Julius Malema, he is the biggest vote-getter of the DA in South Africa. That is why we are so delighted to have him back in the House. [Laughter.]

Mr Deputy Speaker, if he is ... [Interjections.]

An HON MEMBER: We will; we will.

The PREMIER: We will.

An HON MEMBER: For sure.

Mr M OZINSKY: Good point. [Laughter.]

Mr M OZINSKY: I am sure it will be a racist point as well.

The PREMIER: Not as wasted as the hon member's, I can assure him. [Interjections.]

Mr Deputy Speaker, if hon members think that the hon member Mr Ozinsky is malicious and vituperative in the House, they should see what he does inside the ANC - and that is why we like him. He keeps the ANC divided. He is vicious to his colleagues. He calls himself hard, but we know how malicious and vituperative he is everywhere, and 10 times more to his colleagues than he is to us. That is why he is such an asset to the DA.

He talks about President Zuma and the truth. He talks about the truth. He has the audacity to talk about the truth in the House, and he calls me a stranger to the truth. He should take a look at his President. During his rape trial, his President promised that he would not have unprotected sex again and apologised to the nation. How true was that? His President - and my President, but his party leader - then ... [Interjections.] Yes, he is everybody's President and I am everybody's Premier in the Western Cape. [Interjections.] Oh, yes, but we would like to be proud of our President, I can assure hon members of that.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the President also said that he had never received an application for a pardon by Shabir Sheikh, and we all know how true that was.

Mr M SKWATSHA: [Inaudible.]

The PREMIER: It was on his desk.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I do not want to go through the litany of untruths of either President Zuma or people on the other side of the House, because then we would be here till midnight. I will therefore skip a couple of pages.

I want to deal with a fundamental untruth that the hon member Mr Ozinsky raised in the House and which was picked up by the hon member Mr McKenzie today. However, the hon member Mr Ozinsky raised it during the State of the Province Address, when he said that he personally saw my husband go to Queens Park in my official vehicle to buy himself a suit.

Mr M OZINSKY: No, I never said in your official vehicle. I said in an official vehicle.

The PREMIER: In an official vehicle? Let me tell hon members this. I laughed it off at the time. It is so absurd. Anyone who knows my husband knows how nonsensical that is. I SMSed my husband and he SMSed me back. The SMS read, and I quote:

"I have never gone shopping at Queens Park, nor have I ever gone shopping in any one of your cars. Johan"

Mr M OZINSKY: [Inaudible.]

The PREMIER: I believe my husband.

Mr M OZINSKY: Well, I believe my eyes. [Laughter.]

The PREMIER: I believe my husband. [Interjections.]

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order!

The PREMIER: Mr Deputy Speaker, he has never told me an untruth in 30 years and I do not expect him to do so now. [Interjections.] Thirty. [Interjections.] Those hon members should stick to stabbing each other in the back, because it does not work with us.

Ek sê opreg dankie aan die agb lid mnr De Villiers vir die mooi toespraak en die pragtige bydrae wat hy gelewer het, en omdat hy ons saak so goed in die NRVP stel. I do not know how one can take Minister McKenzie - I mean the hon member Mr McKenzie - seriously. [Interjections.] If I had offered him a Minister's position he would be on this side of the House. I decided not to because, as the hon Minister of Health said, the only value that he understands is monetary value. He auctions himself to the highest bidder from party to party. [Interjections.]

The hon member Mr McKenzie raised the issue of the hon member Mr Ozinsky and this terrible thing we did to him. What did I do? I answered a question in the House, and the ANC suspended him because I answered a question truthfully. What kind of party is it that suspends its own member because of an answer to a question by a member of another party? It is absurd, and it reflects the state of the ANC that the hon member Mr Ozinsky helps promote at all times. When one speaks of values, those are the values we have on the other side of the House.

Mr Deputy Speaker, as for the hon Max, it is again another untruth because I have informed the hon Max that we ...

Mr M OZINSKY: Hon Max is absent today.

The PREMIER: Yes, he is, and that is who I am talking about - the hon Lennit Max. I unfortunately would not call the hon member Mr Ozinsky "honourable" unless I was required to by the Rules of the House, I can assure him. [Interjections.] The hon Minister of Community Safety will be returning on 1 March 2010.

Mr Deputy Speaker, yes, it is true, there was a smear campaign against me in our party. I knew there was. I knew of it at the time. Do hon members know what? I ignored it. Do they know why I ignored it? Because I knew that my colleagues, over time, would learn to understand that what they feared about me was not true. They have learned that, and the hon Minister of Health has apologised to me. We have gone on as a party ...

Mr M OZINSKY: He actually denied saying this.

The PREMIER: No, ...

Mr M OZINSKY: He denied saying this ...

The PREMIER: The hon Minister said to me that he did not say those things, but there was a smear campaign against me and people were involved in it. I knew all about that at the time. [Interjections.]

Mr M OZINSKY: [Inaudible.] ... apologised.

The PREMIER: I have said that in the newspaper already. There is nothing new about that. There is absolutely nothing new about that; it has been all over the newspaper for a long time. [Interjections.]

Mr M OZINSKY: [Inaudible.] ... apologise.

The PREMIER: A long time.

Mr Deputy Speaker, let me also say this. Because I know how these things work, I also have to evaluate allegations against my colleagues. We have had people trying to compare the case of Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang with the case of the hon Minister of Community Safety. I have gone into this matter, and as far as I can read from all the evidence, the hon Minister has never been found guilty of the kind of charge that has been bandied around. The late Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, on the other hand, was found guilty of theft in Botswana when she was a superintendent of a hospital, no less, for stealing from her patients. Having that criminal record, she was elevated to Minister of Health.

That tells one all one needs to know about the values of the closed crony society for comrades only. I have no doubt it was because her husband, Dr Mendi Msimang, was the Treasurer-General of the ANC and knew far too much about the ANC that his wife could not be left out of the Cabinet. That is how the closed crony society for comrades works. She was convicted of theft, and her theft conviction did not stand in the way of her becoming a Minister in our Cabinet.

Mr Deputy Speaker, there is an allegation that we called her liar when there was no evidence. We all know how she smuggled alcohol into the hospital when she was having a liver transplant and other things.

Mr M OZINSKY: [Interjections.]

The PREMIER: Yes. It was on the medical record that was exposed in the Sunday Times.

In fact, there is no comparison because, as everybody knows, when a third party alleged that the hon Minister of Community Safety had harassed women in his office, I called in the women and asked them, "Is this true?" They said, "No, it is not true." Must I then believe the allegation of a third party, when the women themselves denied they were being harassed? What kind of kangaroo court do those hon members expect us to run? Certainly not the kind of kangaroo court with which the ANC is familiar, as represented by the Erasmus Commission.

Mr Deputy Speaker, Pierre de Vos is a constitutional lawyer. He has been wrong twice. He was wrong about this issue and he was hopelessly wrong about the Erasmus Commission. He is right about some things, and I respect his view, but no academic, however good, is right about everything and no political party, however good, is right about everything. That is why we in the DA are quite happy to acknowledge our mistakes and our faults when we make them, because the open, opportunity society for all is a philosophy that understands and acknowledges human fallibility. That is why that philosophy exists.

Ag, die agb Uys-man.

Die MINISTER VAN GESONDHEID: Slaan hom oor.

Die PREMIER: Ek kry hom jammer. [Tussenwerpsels.] Hoe het hy daar beland? [Gelag.] Almal lag vir hom. Ek gaan nie nou herhaal wat ek alles oor armoedeverligting in my Rede gesê het nie. Ek het gesê ons enkele grootste uitdaging is om armoede te verminder en te verlig, en dit onderlê alles wat ons doen; en daarna het ek die hele benadering opgesom. Ek sal dit gerus aan hom stuur.

Mr Deputy Speaker, when one looks at cadre deployment one sees there is no bigger example than the Department of Social Development and the projects they supported. I look forward with great enthusiasm to the speech by the hon Minister of Social Development when he will expose a lot of these issues. That will be an interesting debate.

When we make mistakes, as Ms Kohler-Barnard did, we take action, we apologise and we resolve the issue. It is time that the ANC learnt how to do that. In fact, the ANC only protects cadres and comrades. The only time that Julius Malema has ever got into trouble - and he is a symbol of power abuse if ever there was one - was when he mocked a fellow comrade's accent. That shows one how the ANC applies its standards. They are not double standards; they are "tweegat jakkals" standards. [Laughter.]

Finally, Mr Deputy Speaker, nothing will deter us from our vision and our mission of building an open, opportunity society for all in the Western Cape. Our mission and vision are to do so for the whole of South Africa and to demonstrate how that vision can turn around not only this country, but this continent. We know that we have a historic duty to fulfil.

We know we have to demonstrate to all our people that the choice is not a choice between races but a choice between political philosophies, one of which has led to disaster and the failed state and the criminal state wherever it has been implemented, and that is the philosophy and policy of the ANC. The other, which can gradually and progressively lead to an improvement in the life of everybody, is the vision of the DA. We have our 10 objectives, we have our plans. Mr Deputy Speaker, this show is on the road. [Applause.]

Source: Unrevised transcript, Hansard

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