SPEECH OF DR. PWA MULDER IN PARLIAMENT ON 25 SEPTEMBER ON THE ELECTION OF MR. KGALEMA MOTLANTHE AS PRESIDENT

On behalf of the Freedom Front Plus I wish to congratulate Mr. Kgalema Motlanthe with his election as the President of South Africa. South Africa is one of the most beautiful countries in the world with incredible potential. We all love this country. But South Africa is also one of the most difficult countries in the world to govern. Mr. Motlanthe can ask his predecessors about it. The FF Plus wishes him wisdom in these difficult times. All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing, Edmund Burke said. That is true for all of us as leaders in South Africa.

Experience is important but in the end all that we really need from leaders in South Africa is common sense. I must be honest with you - the last year I have been worried that common sense is no longer so common in South Africa.

I like Mr. Seremane. We both come from the same place, Randfontein. The FF Plus abstained from casting a vote today in this election. Not because we are angry with Mr. Seremane, but we thought it opportunistic of the DA to nominate Mr. Seremane as president of this country while from the ranks of the DA, during recent elections of a new leader for the DA, Mr. Seremane could only obtain 6% of the DA's votes. (65 from 1079)

To Mr. Zuma I want to tell a story. Two Afrikaners in the olden days were on their way with a wagon and eight oxen. That evening they unharnessed the oxen and went to sleep in the bush next to the road. At midnight they heard lions roaring around the camp. Quickly and anxiously they harnessed the oxen and dashed away. When the sun came up that morning they saw that in their haste they had harnessed seven oxen and one of the lions. The two looked at each other and said: "it was easy to hastily harness the lion in the dark, but how do we now unharness it again?"

The ANC harnessed Mr. Motlanthe as a lion today in the dark and current crisis and we wish him well with that. Does the ANC also know how to unharness a lion, should it be necessary?

It seems that we will not have the opportunity again to thank Mr. Mbeki. The FF Plus often disagreed with Mr. Mbeki but in our opinion, he served this country to the best of his abilities and he was always a dignified president. We wish him a peaceful retirement.

This is the text of the address by Freedom Front Plus leader, Pieter Mulder, Parliament, September 25 2008

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