Madam Speaker,

The past year has proved to be a tumultuous period of shock and uncertainty for all of us.

However, we have proved in the past that we have the resilience to overcome all and every obstacle and we in the Democratic Alliance believes we can do so again, provided we confront the challenges of governing a modern state with the necessary humility and passion; and, that we avoid dissipating its energies in factional fighting for sectional victories - fiddling, so to speak, while our townships burn.

With the opening of this, the third democratic Parliament in 2004, we agreed that the Presidency should be committed to ensure that South Africa is moved "forward decisively".

Together, we supported the Presidency, at it its own request, with championing the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment and improving the quality of life for South Africans in "many critical areas of social existence", particularly in respect of health and combating crime.

We agreed that for the first half of the second decade of freedom the Presidency should be instrumental in driving the facilitation of the growth and development of our economy, to ensure that it becomes more inclusive and that it creates more jobs.

We applauded the President for saying that our public sector should be enabled with skilled staff, with a special focus on strengthening the local government system to ensure an improved response to the needs of the less fortunate.

We concurred that the Presidency should promote public-private partnerships for improved job creation and improved co-operation between government and civil society in the interests of all the people of South Africa , but especially to address the plight of the poor and issues such as HIV/AIDS.

We listened approvingly when the President expressed his determination to continue working towards the regeneration of Africa.

We also recognised the crucial need for the Presidency to lead the charge in promoting enhanced levels of social cohesion, regenerating the moral fibre of our people and building a sense of national unity, united action and a new patriotism.

These are the key points that we agreed should inform every action by the Presidency and I believe that this agreement on the kind of Presidency that South Africa deserves, still exists: a Presidency to get South Africa working - a Presidency for all the people.

We now have the fifth budget vote of the third Presidency of our country before us - the last such debate before the next elections and, a most opportune moment to ask: did we get the kind of Presidency we deserved?

Dit sou oneerlik wees om te sê dat die Presidensie geen sukses behaal het oor die laaste vier jaar nie, maar ons het nodig om ewe sober te kyk na wat wel behaal is en wat heel moontlik agterwee sal bly.

Daar is geen twyfel dat hierdie Presidensie Suid-Afrika se oorgang na ‘n moderne staat teen sterk interne teenstand, ingelei het nie, en dat dit vir Suid-Afrika wel ‘n plek op wereldplatforms verseker het.

Ongoing diplomatic efforts contributed to the formation of the African union, the acceptance of the Peer Review mechanism, the recognition of South Africa 's global importance by our inclusion in the Security Council of the UN and acceptance as a voice to be listened to by the G8.

However, in a number of critical areas, the Presidency failed to provide the leadership that was required.

The tacit support lent to the National Commissioner of Police when criminal charges were to be brought against him has done tremendous damage to the government's commitment to combat organised crime - organised crime which, if left unchecked, often leads to immense downstream ills in our communities, such as increased trade in drugs like tik, heroin and cocaine

This blow was exacerbated through the subsequent process to disband the Scorpions against the recommendations of the long-suppressed Khampepe Commission report and contrary to an earlier cabinet decision.

The murky waters around the suspension of the National Director of Public Prosecutions and the passivity of the Presidency surrounding the arms deal has done irreparable damage to the reputation of the highest Office of our land in terms of the promotion of clean government and a corruption-free society.

It is to the credit of this Presidency that pertinent issues have been placed on the table with respect to the economy, inter alia through the approach of identifying binding constraints on growth.

But despite its well-meaning overarching economic policy initiatives - JIPSA and AsgiSA - the Presidency has not succeeded in effectively mobilising the resources to remove the barriers to growth to bring about the skills revolution promised or to improve the job-creating capacity of our economy.

Most crucially, the Presidency has not anticipated the crisis with our electricity generation infrastructure capacity and the serious constraints it would place on our economic growth.

More grandiose projects have superseded the good work that Project Consolidate and the President's izImbizo programme were to achieve, and have left these programmes impotent and, especially the latter initiative, open to manipulation for party-political gain by the ruling party.

We also continue to be burdened with a crumbling health system, which, through sheer ineptitude does not deliver on its mandate with respect to the management of facilities charged with the treatment of HIV/AIDS and other high prevalence diseases.

The robustness of our modern state is being eroded by these failings, all of which makes it impossible to hold the third Presidency as a model for future incumbents of the highest office of our land.

Madam Speaker,

In 2001 the government announced 22 Presidential development nodes in the poorest and least developed communities in our country, to be prioritised for key interventions aimed at improving the dismal quality of life these communities.

The Ukhahlamba district in the Eastern Cape is such presidential node. Yet, when 140 infants recently perished because of diarrhoea contracted from impurities in drinking water and rendered untreatable by the shortage of basic medicines at local hospitals, the lack of response from the Presidency was chilling.

The women in these poor areas are subject to poverty and abuse. The children are subjected to the highest child rape incidences in the world - more than 60 children get raped per day. Yet we have under the Presidency the Office of the Status of Women, the Office of the Rights of the Child and the National Youth Commission that are supposed to address their needs, but have seemingly failed to do so year after year.

It was in Alexandra Township , probably the best known development node that the horrifying xenophobic violence we have been experiencing, originally exploded. Here we saw the poor turn on the poor in a most brutal fashion - at least partially out of frustration with their economic situation and living conditions - something the President has yet to acknowledge.

This is not the kind of Presidency we deserve.

We need the kind of Presidency that will ensure that the state is an efficient service delivery instrument.

Ons benodig nie ‘n opgeblase openbare sektor om die regering se doeltreffendheid rakende dienslewering en die verandering wat mense benodig, teweeg te bring nie.

Maar ten spyte daarvan dat dit ‘n  pertinente prioriteit van die Presidentskantoor is, het die hoeveelheid vakante poste in die nasionale regering aan die einde van die 2006/2007 boekjaar steeds meer as 40 000 vakatures beloop.

Daarbenewens is Openbare-Privaat Vennootskappe (PPP's) nie genoegsaam gebruik om die vakuum wat deur ons kwynende regeringskapasiteit veroorsaak word te bevorder om die pas van dienslewering - veral in terme van infrastruktuur - en werkskepping te vul nie. 

As gevolg van die tekort aan leierskap wat deur die Presidensie in dié verband verskaf is, het daar ‘n hinderende onenigheid tussen die Tesourie, wat die betrokkenheid van die privaatsektor steun, en die Ministerie van Openbare Ondernemings, want dit nie ondersteun nie, ontstaan.

This absence of government direction was starkly evidenced in the patent lack of concerted action during the xenophobic attacks and the need for emergency aid, which civil society and local government had to provide.

Prudent political leadership is what South African needs now and this is also true when it comes to fostering and harnessing civil society cooperation.

The situation of foreign African nationals in our own country is a salient reminder of the real need for South Africa to play a constructive role on the continent.

The contributions that we have been able to make through our leading roles in the African Union and the G77 and the mediation from our Presidency in countries such as the DRC and Burundi have been particularly fruitful.

All the greater the pity that these achievements have to be so callously undermined by the  ruinous positions we  adopted during the violent aftermath of both the Zimbabwean and Kenyan elections and our morally duplicitous stance as Chair of the Security Council.

It is not an exaggeration to call the situation in Zimbabwe slow motion mass murder, achieved by cutting off the funds to starving children so as to subvert the results of democracy. The President cannot deny complicity in this by obstructing the issue from going to the UN where it belongs.

He must now break his bonds with Mugabe. It is a simple question of common decency, of siding with the people and not with the tyrants.

Madam Speaker,

To get South Africa working for all South Africans, our Presidency needs to be beyond reproach as a force for getting Africa to work for all Africans.

We need new ideas and decisive political leadership to take our country forward.

Nuwe politieke denke en ‘n nuwe sosiale kontrak word dringend benodig om te verhoed dat ons nie weereens, soos voor 1994, afstuur op ‘n doodloopstraat nie.

Destyds is die land ook bestuur in belang van slegs ‘n gedeelte van die bevolking. Ons het dit omgeswaai. Nou moet ons saamstaan en dit weer te doen.

Laat ek dit maar weer onomwonde herhaal: nie bruin of swart of wit sal alleen die mas opkom nie. ‘n Nuwe apartheid is die laaste ding wat ons wil hê of kan bekostig.

Politieke transformasie, emosioneel noodsaaklik soos dit was en steeds is, is nie volhoubaar ten koste van kundigheid en die uitsluiting van die grootste gros van die bevolking nie. Sonder transformasie kan ons nie ons samelewing hervorm nie, maar sonder kundigheid kan geen moderne samelewing vorentoe beweeg nie. Hierdie twee essensiele fasette van ons huidige bestel, moet met omsigtigheid bestuur word -aanvullend maar nie ten koste van mekaar nie.

Dit is ook noodsaaklik dat die Presidensie nie die waarde van taal en kultuur vir ons verskeidenheid van gemeenskappe onderskat nie - dit moet ten alle tye deur die hoogste amp van die land begryp word.

Ons grondwetlike skikking het op die beginsels van die regstaat en die reg to privaat eiendom tot stand gekom. Dit bly van kardinale belang vir ons vooruitgang as ‘n nasie, sowel as privaat individue - en dit sluit ontluikende boere en werkloses in.

Dit sal rampspoedig wees as die beginsel omvergewerp word deur een uit ‘n vloed van ondeurdagte wetsontwerpe wat tans deur die parlement gedruk word in ‘n desperate poging om met wetgewing reg te maak wat weens gebrekkige bestuur nie gedoen kon word nie.

Ons het aan die Staat die verantwoordelikheid oorgedra om ons teen misdaad te beskerm. Die Staat kan nie nou daardie verantwoordelikheid ontduik nie.

Dit help nie om die Skerpioene lam te lê om politiese vriende te beskerm nie. Hierdie foefies ondermyn die hele regsstaat.

I now rephrase my earlier question: What kind of Presidency should do we deserve?

We actually need to go no further than the American example, where a man, unknown to the outside world a mere 10 months ago now stands on the cusp of becoming the so-called leader of the free world. He achieved this miraculous rise in prominence not only by promoting the simple message - "change we can believe in" - but also by being the kind of man we can believe in.

No one can be unaware of the moral leadership, inclusive spirit, common decency and caring that emanates from him. In South Africa , we are desperately in need of leaders of unambiguous honesty, humble realism, moral rectitude and capacity to deliver the "CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN".

We will achieve this by cherishing contributions, whether they are local and white, or foreign and black or all of these things; whether they belong to the previously advantaged or the currently disadvantaged. Bring them together so that we can all be advantaged!

We will achieve this if we open up our society and opportunities for all.

We will achieve this by removing the fault lines of race and ethnicity as a yardstick for determining the value of human beings, and of being the frame of reference for political parties.

It is necessary that we break free from outdated political models and move towards a truly South African construct which gives credence to the momentous changes we made in 1994.

We will also achieve a truly better life for all if we act like the volunteers at the refugee centres, who, when the need was greatest, saw neither race nor creed nor colour, but simply frightened humanity looking for help.

We will achieve this by realigning the politics of this country through a unity of purpose and vision and the conviction that each and every one of us is a valued and indispensable part of its future.

Either we succeed together or collectively we fail.

When we differ, let it be on issues, not values.

When we debate, let us use words as bricks and mortar, not sticks and stones.

When we act, let us remember the prescient words of Dr Martin Luther King: "We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny."

It is one thing to have a new system of national orders, but it is an entirely different story to encourage the formation of a new national order.

The choices made in the Presidency shapes the destiny of this land and every individual who resides in it. Instead of harnessing that power in ever increasing service of narrow sectional interests, we ask that it be unleashed in the service of the broad national interest of all the citizens and occupants of this resourceful and resource rich country.

No Presidential legacy will be greater or last longer in the annals of history than that which placed service to the people above service to self.

Thank you.

This is the prepared text of an address by Sandra Botha MP, Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader, in the debate on The Presidency's budget vote, Cape Town, June 11 2008