Dr. Pieter Mulder, FF Plus Leader and deputy minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Reply to President Zuma's State of the Nation Address 2014, National Assembly, February 19 2014
Speaker, What is the saddest story that I have read in recent times?
KwaZulu-Natal advertised 90 posts for new traffic officers. How many people do you think applied for those 90 positions?
30 000 desperate South African jobseekers applied for the 90 positions.
The authorities decided to put them through a fitness test, subjecting the applicants to a 4km run and choosing the best ones from the results. In their efforts to get the positions, six applicants died, trying to be amongst the first 90. That is how desperate South Africans are to get a job.
Die agb president spog met die hoeveelheid mense wat tans werk. Hy moet ook die syfer gee van hoeveel nie werk nie en hoeveel uit moedeloosheid opgehou het om werk te soek.
Die ANC se werkskeppingsbeleid werk nie. Veertien miljoen mense het werk aan die einde van 2008 (Q4 in 2008) gehad. Vyf jaar later, in 2013, is die syfer steeds net 14 miljoen. Die syfer bly dieselfde terwyl die bevolking van 48 milj na 51 milj geklim het. Werkloosheid word vererger deur selfsugtige vakbonde wat net na hulleself kyk en nie oor die miljoene werkloses bekommer nie.
How did we end up in this situation?
I do not have time to discuss the history of the alliance between Cosatu and the ANC. This has led to the ANC'slabour legislation largely favouring Cosatu.
In Afrikaans we say: "Pasop vir 'n hond wat eendag omdraai en sy eienaar byt." This is what's happening.
The chickens have come home to roost. Trade unions such as AMCU and Numsa are currently trying to destroy the ANC. What they are succeeding in doing is destroying the economy.
According to the director general of labour, the number of labour days which have been lost due to strikes have increased from 2,8 million in 2011 to 3,3 million in 2012. (The strikes are also gradually becoming more violent and are lasting longer according to the DG.)
What do we have to do to create jobs for the thousands who had run for the traffic positions in KZN?
The government cannot create these jobs. The government should make it possible for the private sector to expand and create jobs. Currently the government is interfering on every level of the economy, while the trade unions are chasing away investors.
The vehicle manufacturer Nissan, gave four countries the opportunity to put in a bid to manufacture the new Datsun vehicle series. South Africa was the favourite to get the bid. Thousands could get jobs. As a result of all the strikes, South Africa did not get it. The contract was awarded to India.
For the same reasons, the manufacturing of the new BMW-3 series was not awarded to South Africa. Thousands more job opportunities were destroyed.
Lonmin decided to sink a new shaft (K4 shaft at Marikana). It would have created 6 000 new job opportunities. Due to the violent strikes, the project was cancelled. 6 000 job opportunities lost.
It is these events that caused six people to die while they ran for a position. The government must review the Labourlegislation and will have to ensure more distance between the ANC and the trade unions.
Data from the South African police shows that the country is averaging around four to five violent protests a day. Last week the police said that Gauteng alone had experienced more than 500 protests since the beginning of 2014.
In their speeches the ANC leaders proudly tell the younger generations about the struggle years and their successes with their slogan: "Make the country ungovernable". These chickens are coming home to roost as this generation is now using the same methods against the government.
The protests are about erratic water supply, electricity disconnections, poorly built RDP houses and sewerage flowing through the streets. (@Liberty, IRR)
Why these shortages? A spokesperson would reply: "capacity constraints". Capacity constraints is in effect a code for affirmative action and cadre deployment at local government level. (@Liberty, IRR)
Waarom het die ANC die staatsdiens heel eerste getransformeer deur regstellende aksie? Dit is die grootste fout wat die ANC die afgelope twintig jaar gemaak het. Ek sou water, krag en huise aan die armes as eerste prioriteit gesien het. Ek sou die ervare staatsamptenare, of hulle wit, bruin of swart is, gebruik het om hierdie dienste op grondvlak te verskaf. Daarna kan na verandering in die staatsdiens gekyk word. Vandag het die meerderheid plaaslike besture geen ingenieur om die rioolwerke of die waterstelsels in stand te hou nie. The Affirmative action chickens came home to roost against the ANC.
Ek wil voorspel dat die ANC se heropening van die grondeise in die toekoms ook teen hulle gaan draai. Daardie "chickens" gaan ook nog huis toe kom om te "roost".
Vir meer as vier jaar lank tot 1998 kon mense grondeise indien. Vandag, sestien jaar later, is baie van hierdie eise nog nie afgehandel nie. Die hoop was dat ons binnekort hierdie saak kon afhandel sodat boere sekerheid oor hulle grond kan kry. Sekerheid sodat hulle kan uitbrei en meer kos vir ons groeiende bevolking produseer. Nou skielik, met die oog op die verkiesing, word die grondeise weer vir vyf jaar heropen.
Some 379 000 new land claims are likely to be submitted. This could cost the state about R179 billion to settle. The restitution budget is roughly only R3 billion. How, then, is the state to find the money to settle all these claims?
The ANC is creating a lot of expectations with many people. False expectations which cannot be fulfilled. This is the recipe for revolutions. Very soon these chickens will be coming home to roost.
We must rethink the land issue. The ANC continues to nurse the notion that they can reverse the inevitable march to an urban future. We are wasting valuable time and energy trying to restore people to their old ways. Ordinary South Africans want to go to cities and work in a modern economy.
Mondli Makhanya wrote: "It is not because black people cannot farm. It is because time has moved on from the time the apartheid government was carrying out its forced-removal policies.
"The money and energy that is spent on getting peasants back into subsistence farming would be better used to create a strong class of black commercial farmers who actually do farm for commercial rather than sentimental reasons."
Sir, we need more successful black commercial farmers. The majority of the land transfers to date have failed, according to the department. We cannot afford more fertile land becoming unproductive while the population grows and more food is needed on a daily basis. Hungry people, running in the streets, is the recipe for instability and the fall of governments.
Die ANC het in 1994 'n reënboognasie in die vooruitsig gestel waar daar plek vir elkeen onder die son is. Wat het ons gekry? 'n Sebra-nasie - net wit en swart. As jy bruin of Asiër is, is jy soms 'n ere swarte. Ander kere, soos by korrektiewe dienste in die Weskaap, word teen jou gediskrimineer.
If one applies for a job or bursary, the free-born still have to fill in forms to indicate whether they are white or black. If you are white and poor you do not get a bursary. Your black school mate with the millionaire father is given it.
When the ANC is in trouble or when they want to canvas for votes, they blame the white people. We heard it in this debate again. But it is a recipe which divides, which incites people against each other and leads to conflict.
The ANC youth, and so also Malema, were raised on an anti-white diet. Today the chickens have come home to roost. Malema is using the same methods now against the ANC and I have read the extreme racism of black youths against whites on the internet.
Why does the ANC not condemn it? There are still ANC members in this Assembly who preach that there is no such thing as black racism. Only whites are capable of racism. What nonsense!
Die VF Plus is ten gunste van 'n staatkundige bestel waarin werklike erkenning gegee word aan die reënboog van Suid-Afrika. Soos in Spanje, België, Switserland of Ethiopië gebruik so 'n bestel diversiteit as die ware grondwetlike boublokke. Dit behels begrippe soos federalisme, outonomie en selfbeskikking. So 'n bestel word gebou op respek vir mekaar, sonder diskriminasie en rassisme, met gelyke geleenthede, maar met erkenning van elkeen se eie, sowel as die gemeenskaplike. Dit spreek die volle waarheid van SA aan. Soos elders in die wêreld bewys, is hierdie benadering nie in konflik met 'n grondwetlike- of 'n liberale demokrasie nie. Inteendeel, dit word as die nuutste en modernste staatkundige tendense beskryf.
Honourable president, don't blame the world or the white people for your problems twenty years after 1994. It is your own chickens who have come home to roost. And remember, the Bible doesn't say when Jesus will be returning. It could be tomorrow or the 7th of May.
Issued by the Freedom Front Plus, February 19 2014
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