Speech by Mmusi Maimane, Parliamentary Leader of the Democratic Alliance in the debate on the Budget Vote of the Presidency, Parliament, July 23 2014

Lead or step aside, Mr President

 Deputy Speaker,

Honourable President,

Honourable Members,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Bagaetso Dumelang,

Five years from now, the year will be 2019, and this fifth democratic parliament will conclude its mandate, given to us by the people of South Africa, with their hopes and dreams in our hands.

The history books will have recorded our actions right here, and our country will be shaped and moulded by them. Our nation could in the next 5 years be a very different place.

Deputy Speaker, Mr President, it is our duty and our obligation to do everything in our power to create that future in a way that makes a positive change to our people's lives through inclusive growth that eliminates our devastating historical legacy of apartheid. 

I have a young sibling - my sister is just 16 years old - she faces the prospect of a turbulent future.

Her everyday life will either be one where she has access to poor education options, with declining pass rates, and lowered pass marks, or one of education that liberates her.

It will either be one where she has only worsening healthcare options with medicine shortages and vacant nursing-posts or one of healthcare excellence that ensures wellness.

It will either be one where she cannot walk around her community without feeling unsafe and at risk, or one where the police protect our women, our children, our men, young and old.

It will either be one where she can choose from thousands more real job options, or one where our economy stagnates, jobs are shed and we are further downgraded on our sovereign rating.

The actions of this government, under the Honourable President, in the next five years will make or break that future. 

And the story of my own sister, is the story of every person's sister, daughter, mother, brother, son and father. It is for them that the future is ours to shape.

These actions will either deliver the people of South Africa to meaningful work and hope, or these actions will deliver them to a place of more hopelessness and more unemployment.

Imagine rather, Mr President, a South Africa in 2019 where our people, and the world, see our nation as one of greatness; a place of opportunity for all.

A country premised on Amartya Sen's central insight that development should be measured by the extent to which people have the opportunity, and the capability, to define their own futures and achieve their potential. 

Where investment swells and new industry and agriculture spring up, and growth is realised at over 6%, with the right policy framework for growth, where corruption has been cut out, where our democratic institutions are strong and are free of  political meddling, where coherent policy reigns and that we looks at South Africa with full investor confidence.

The outcome we can all imagine. But, Mr President, do you have the BOLDNESS to get us there? 

Who will make the tough decisions to boldly lead us on a plan to a future of South African greatness; to a land of opportunity for all?

Bold leadership is the difference between more and more of the same, or real and meaningful progress.

And that progress is embodied in a Plan already: The National Development Plan. 

The fact is that so much of the National Development Plan can set us on the path to greatness, toward the South African Dream.

Almost all of this house, have stood up for its outcomes: jobs, growth, investment, quality education, broadband for all, a revolution of small business, rejecting red-tape and making South Africa friendly to business.

Almost all, but for one.

Scenes yesterday in Gauteng reminded me of the breaking-into the CODESA negotiations on horseback; those who stormed the Gauteng Legislature yesterday prove why they will be on the wrong side of history. 

And it is irrelevant what some honourable members choose to wear in this House. This House must be a contestation of ideas.

The problem is not what they choose to wear, but that they are joint opponents of the NDP, with COSATU and the SACP. And they are therefore joint opponents of growth and joint enemies of job creation.

Mr President, without bold leadership, the NDP is being stalled by these enemies, and those who didn't even stand for election - the alliance partners of the ANC.

Deputy Speaker, on the occasion of this budget vote debate, I therefore put it to the Honourable President: At a time when our challenges are enormous, there are but two options: Mr President, Lead, or step aside...

To Lead is to take the difficult and bold decisions necessary to return South Africa to the path of greatness, and to the land of opportunities for all.

To Lead is to take ones cue from THIS Parliament, not the "Parliament" that is Luthuli House.

There is a very important difference.

When the Honourable President fails to Lead, but is rather simply a political captive being Led, then it is time to Step Aside.

Mr President, Lead or step aside...

While every woman and every man has the right to peaceful strike action, we cannot continue to ignore protracted labour unrest that kills industry, and undemocratically places workers between the rock of the union and the hard place of unemployment.

Mr President, Lead, or step aside...

We cannot continue to stand by while our Police Service does not serve but oppresses and kills innocent people, as they did to miners in Marikana and the Durban Deep DA activist, Bakwa Babuseng whose family I held in my arms and felt the weeping and devastation.

Mr President, Lead, or step aside...

We cannot continue to undermine institutions protecting our democracy, because without them we have no democracy left.

We cannot allow the public broadcaster to be overthrown by the agenda of telling a good story, when the story is so very far from good,

Lead, Mr President, act and fire Hlaudi Motsoeneng or risk losing all "Faith" in the SABC. Or Step aside...

We cannot continue to ignore corruption at the highest levels, simply because it's tough to take action against your comrades.

We cannot stand by as Operation Phakisa is launched to make it appear that things will hurry up, but the President himself will not hurry up and deliver his reply to the Nkandla Report, he will not hurry up and establish the NDPP Enquiry, and he will not hurry up and comply with direct court orders on the spy tapes.

Mr President, Lead or step aside...

You see Deputy Speaker, the budget before us is simply more of the same from the Presidency and Honourable President Zuma. More of the same that will see more of the same lacklustre outcomes:

34% unemployment, and growing

Widening inequality among our people

Deepening poverty

But the time is now, and the chance is upon us.

At this moment in history, five most serious matters of national importance deserve your urgent and decisive action:

1. Come out strongly to support the Institutions of Democracy, which exist to ensure our democracy is protected and upheld. It is indeed the most important job of the President as Leader and Head of State to uphold the integrity and independence of the institutions of democracy, including The SABC, the NPA, the Public Protector. And all others. 

2. Set the example against corruption, Mr President. South Africans need to know that no one is above the law and most of all not you, Mr President. And that means urgently providing South Africa with your response to the damning allegations against you in the Nkandla Report of the Public Protector.

The Honourable President has missed his own deadline to come clean on Nkandla and submit his response to the Nkandla Report. The people of South Africa who elected us to this House must know the truth on Nkandla, for until then, the cloud of improper financial benefit hangs over the head of our President.

3. Mr President, make it easier, not harder, for people to work, to start their own businesses and to create jobs for other South Africans. Heed the petitions on your desk to return job-killing bills to the National Assembly for further debate and amendment.

The Labour Relations Amendment Bill, The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Amendment Bill, The Private Security Industry Regulation Bill and the Woman Empowerment and Gender Equity Bill are but four Bills - yet these the President can still act against. 

Deputy Speaker; in 2019, when this Fifth Parliament concludes its vital mandate, the Honourable President's signature will live on at the bottom of laws that have stolen jobs from the people of this land. Mr President, you can move to stop these four bills.

4. Mr President, stimulate key sectors of the economy, rather than standing-by as our growth sits at nothing more than mediocre and a recession is not off the table. The mining sector was right to be prioritized in the Honourable President's State of the Nation address in June. But South Africa needs bold action to correct the imbalances in power between mining unions and mine workers. I say this with full knowledge that the Honourable President sits in an alliance with the largest collective of unions.

But when we see such protracted strikes as the platinum belt catastrophe, and today with metal workers, and we see the effects of those strikes on the outputs of the industry, and we see non-striking workers beaten, and we see striking workers forced to starve for months on end, and we see desperate workers without a choice to strike or not; then Mr President, we are failing our vulnerable working class. It is time that the Honourable President leads South Africa away from this parasitic system of big unions and big business working together to keep people out of the economy.

5. Mr President, give South Africa's youth a compelling option for employment and personal development, and scrap the National Youth Development Agency. It is nothing more than a cash-cow for connected individuals who get rich, while the youth of South Africa get poorer.

From an NYDA budget of R408-million, almost half will go just to salaries. How can we possibly support that an agency whose costs to run equate to half of its total budget allocation is the best solution to Youth Development. Mr President, every cent of that R408-million could rather be spent on a Youth Tax Incentive Scheme, which will mean money going directly to job creation for unemployed youth, not job creation for Executive after Executive in the NYDA who achieve nothing for our Youth. In fact, the NYDA should rather be called the NYDPA - The National Youth Personal Development Agency.

Take the tough decisions, Mr President.

6. Mr President, South Africa needs you to keep the lights on. Energy generation and supply are far too expensive. Your commitment in June was to diverse energy production, yet Minister Joemat-Pietterssen forges ahead on over R1-trillion spending on Nuclear energy, which is a bill that we certainly cannot even afford. We must provide diverse energy; Energy generation that prioritizes wind and solar, and green technology. And let us not prioritise investment of trillions by government alone, but let us make it easier for investors to add to our electricity capacity, and for private and independent operators to enter the market urgently. 

Act on these, Mr President. They may be unpopular with some in your alliance, but real leadership is not about pleasing your comrades or being popular - it is about choosing a different way. 

Mr President, Lead, or step aside...

These 6 things will set about positive change, I believe, in the short term. And they will be marks of boldness and marks of strong leadership.

Mr President, Lead, or step aside...

Indeed the electorate and the people of South Africa face difficult times. Some of the most difficult on record. 

Ours is to champion their fight, and to call for boldness in government that brings progress through the National Development Plan, through purging of corruption, through growing the economy in ways similar to our equivalent competitor countries, like India and Chile have done, at over 5% growth today - not in 5 years time.

Progress through fostering investment, through quality education, through excellent healthcare, through broadband for all, through a revolution of small business, through rejecting red-tape as the DA has done in the Western Cape and through making South Africa the most attractive economy for doing business.

We must look back on this Fifth Parliament in 2019 and we say that in this Parliament, in this House, in this chamber, we held this government and its actions to the strongest account, showing it the way forward to a place of opportunity for all.

Deputy Speaker, Honourable Members, I told you of my sister earlier, and of the turbulent future she faces. She is in no way unique, and it is the future of all such young South Africans that a place of opportunity for all, a future of greatness in South Africa, is so desperately demanded.

And that Mr President is why, in 2016, across every local government of South Africa, and in 2019 throughout the Nation, South Africans will go to the polls and they will take their destiny into their hands, and they will voice to your government their choice for stronger alternatives, they will express for your government to make way for real change and progress.

Imagine Mr President, when Nelson Mandela Bay goes to the DA. Imagine when Tshwane, goes to the DA. Imagine when Johannesburg, goes to the DA. Imagine in every province of South Africa, there will be local governments where the DA delivers real opportunities to South Africans of all walks of life.

Mr President, take the tough action, lead South Africa to prosperity, or step aside for a new hope, under the DA.

This is what South Africa demands.

Issued by the DA, July 23 2014

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