Address by LN Sisulu, MP, Minister for Human Settlements, during the debate on the President`s State of the Nation Address

16 February 2016, Parliament

Madam Speaker

Mr President

Honourable Members

I want to salute the valour of a young South African, Thembi Nkadimeng (Simelane) who, for the past 20 years, has worked tirelessly to track down the brutal, Apartheid killers of her sister, Nokuthula Simelane. She has finally won the right to have the killers of Nokuthula, who operated in the ANC underground in Swaziland, prosecuted. Thembi was only nine years old when her sister was heinously murdered. The courage and bravery she has displayed gives me hope, Mr President, that our young people will continue our struggle for justice and everything we fought for.

There is hope in the future. We have overcome many obstacles. We will rule this country untill all our people have a better life, until there is a truly non-racial society. Until all these benches are packed with people who treasure our liberation. We will get to that society and the ANC will still lead.

Those who came before us have bequeathed us with simple tools to characterise any debate, such as this one. One of which is a timeless wisdom that says; "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and weak minds discuss people". And now I can add to that. They even create and name planets. That is the banality that weak minds resort to.

Not unexpectedly, the responses to the President SoNA can be grouped into two camps.

• The anti-ANC and anti-Zuma brigade was predictable. This camp found nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing, and learned nothing from the SoNA. This was exemplified by Honourable Maimane. He was probably playing marbles when the President spoke, because he did not respond to anything that the President`s said.
• The second group, who I`ll call the discerning citizens, not only listened but also read the State of the Nation Address. The latter comprised mainly of investors, business people, economists, and CEOs of companies, captains of industry and ordinary citizens wanting to hear about the future of the country.

Writing in the Business Day of 13 February 2016, journalist Stuart Theobald speaks for many who are in the business of making sure that the economy works when he says;

"Senior business leaders have had three key meetings with senior government officials...The effects were clear in Mr Zuma`s speech. The speech promised much that business has been asking for: promoting SA as an investment destination, etc."

Indeed, while this is obvious for the broader business community and ordinary citizens, the message is certainly lost on the usual anti-ANC and anti-Zuma brigade.

Given past experience, I did not hold my breath to expect ideas to predominate this debate. So far I have not been proved wrong. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. All we have heard is the same repetition of moans and groans, which is within the grasps of everyone here in the real world like poverty in the Western Cape, unemployment in the Western Cape and racism in the Western Cape. Now they come here and indicate they are going to fight gangsterism. What have they been doing in the Western Cape where gangsterism is the worst. Honourable Maimane says "we will, we will, we will". Why have they not done it yet?

For us, therefore, the responses from the private sector, BASA and SACCI and ordinary citizens were encouraging and supportive of the measures announced by the President and here today we also supportive and constructive statements from leaders like Honourable Buthelezi

We are doing well in deepening our democracy. We are very proud of the work that we have done and that none can contest.

Honourable Nkwinti was coined a very catchy phrase some time back, when he said that the ANC is moving. But now we have gone past that in our delivery. We are sailing. Sometimes on rough water, but our mast is aligned to the wind. We are doing exceptionally well in some areas and it is time that we boldly take credit for what we have achieved.

In his address on the occasion of the Sunday Times Literary Awards, Justice Edwin Cameron provides a lucid objective assessment of the performance of our political dispensation. He notes; "Our polity is boisterous, rowdy, sometimes cacophonous and often angry. That much is to be expected. But after nearly two decades, we have more freedom, more debate, more robust and direct engagement with each other".

The honorable Justice has perhaps a harsh riposte/response to those whose sole existence is to sow despair and despondency. He notes that South Africa under the ANC government has experienced "certainly more practically tangible social justice than twenty years ago."

The long and short of Justice Cameron`s message and by those others is that we are on track. The wind blows behind our sails.

Justice Cameron`s observation has been echoed by many other independent research institutions. This includes the Goldman Sach`s appraisal of SA 20 years of democracy, the World Bank and, importantly, FastFACTS (November 2015), a fact sheet produced by the South African Institute of Race Relations, noting in an appropriately titled headline; "They huff and they puff but cannot blow this house down" . These are the facts;

"In 1996 there were three million four hundred thousand African families residing in formal housing, but by 2014 that number had increased to nine million four hundred thousand, an increase of six million. On average, some 912 African families have moved into a formal house per day since 1996."

Madam Speaker, Mr President, Honourable Members. Every evening that you go to bed, this government has placed 912 families into new houses. These are not my statistics, they are provided and verified by the South African Institute of Race Relations.

To get back on course, the South African Institute of Race Relations FastFacts concludes "the view that the service delivery efforts of the Government have failed and that living standards are only a little better than they were twenty years ago is untrue. On the contrary, service delivery (here specifically in the form of housing) must be judged as a success in many respects."

Honourable Members, take note of this. This is not Government-speak, it is what other people with no axe to grind say about government performance. We are doing remarkably well. And these are tangible assets that government has given to the poor. On the back of this we are increasing our delivery, creating huge job opportunities and addressing poverty.

At this point I must refer to an unsolicited observation and advice by Honourable Buthelezi not so long ago. I do this because for me he embodies the notion of a patriotic opposition leader, who puts South Africa first, whatever his political views are.

Let me repeat the quotation when he responded to President Zuma`s previous SONA address, because of its singular importance to us; he noted

"I respect the President, warts and all, because behind him, rightly or wrongly lies the will of the democratic mandate of 66% of the South African people. I could not hinder or oppose without opposing the South African people....I cannot afford to see the President and his government fail. If they fail, my own country fails. If the President and his government fail, I will not applaud and rejoice but weep. For if they fail, our liberation fails."

Honourable Buthelezi, amongst all the opposition, seems to understand, and you`ll pardon me for using this expression, that we were not given our independence from colonialists. What we have here is the product of people who took up arms to fight a brutal, cruel and unjust system. We owe it to those people who gave up their lives to bring us where we are, comfortable in our red overalls and blue berets. The significance of our revolution is trod upon as though it is of no consequence. We are a product of a liberation struggle. Our conduct and our understanding of our role should be underpinned by this. Our future is dependent on our past, wherein we dared to hope, against all odds, that one day we will be here on behalf of our people.

We created this democracy to ensure that our people no longer live with the scourge of inequality. We created this democracy in order that our people no longer live with racism. We created this democracy so that our people no longer in poverty and humiliation. This is what defined us in 1994 and this is what defines us now. We stand here on the will of the people to do the best we can, in their name. It does not matter how much anyone howls and whinges or grandstands. Our government and our policies have been lauded internationally and where we have erred, we have acknowledged it. Not for trifle political gain, but to ensure we correct it.

This brings me to the issue of the constitution and democracy, whose inter-linkage is often inexplicably, purposefully misinterpreted in these quarters. The Constitution was never meant to constrain democracy. But far from it, it is a means to advance and to enrich it, and lay the parameters.

Honourable Lekota comes here with monotonous repetition and wields the Constitution, as though we are fighting over the Constitution. Constitutions across the world are debated over and over to determine the meaning of each clause and we will continue debating for years to come, the clauses of the Constitution and their meaning. It is a living document and must be read in that context in an ever-changing world. Latter-day preacher, Honourable Lekota comes in here with his own interpretation of the Constitution, as though he is wielding some divine tablet, brought down from the mountains by Moses. But we understand, given his presidential ambition it must be painful to be reduced to an irrelevant howler in the back benches. President Zuma is a constant reminder of his fall from glory. We must empathise with his political and psychological trauma.

Interestingly, the President pointed out the seemingly intractable challenge and demon of racism and Honourable Maimane heard nothing and saw nothing. It encapsulates the nothingness of his speech. From time to time we are jolted out of our comfort zones as it rears its ugly. It is common cause that the ANC was founded on the principle of non-racialism. Nation building is premised on our ability to deal with this demon.

The resolution of the race problem requires, among other things, that we understand racism from the perspective of the victim.

Non-racialism presupposes respect for other people. It calls for understanding and the appreciation of other people`s experiences. If we do not, we will be caught in a cycle of blame and political point-scoring at the expense of building a united society. While apartheid laws have been removed, the subtle racism that exists is equally devastating.

In their study, US psychologists Feagin and Sikes found that most whites refuse to acknowledge that racial discrimination remains widespread in the traditionally white-controlled workplaces, company boardrooms, law courts, schools and other places. For some, racism is limited to extreme prejudices and actions by extreme bigots, but not representative of the general white population. This view and the luxury of looking at racial discrimination with detachment makes it easier for some to deny the reality of much of the racism reported by blacks.

Racism refers also to institutionalised discrimination through which people of different race groups are dominated. As many of the victims know, no amount of hard work or achieved status protects them from racial oppression in some institutions. When blacks speak of racial discrimination, they do not speak in abstract concepts of discrimination learnt from books. Rather, they speak of mistreatment encountered as they traverse historically white places.

Experiences of racial discrimination are not only painful and stressful; they also have a cumulative effect on individuals, their families and communities. For the majority of whites, however, acts of discrimination and acts of violence are "isolated" events. As a result, whites often feel that blacks tend to "overreact". What they forget is that "blacks live lives of quiet desperation generated by a litany of daily large and small events that, whether or not by design, remind them of their place" in society.

The ANC was formed on the basis of non-racialism, We negated racism by infusing our Constitution with Human rights. We should have criminalised it right from the outset. In addressing racism, our focus has unfortunately tended to focus on how blacks are disadvantaged by racism in societal institutions. An incisive approach should, however, include a focus also on advantages whites gain from blacks` disadvantage. Racism and white privilege are two sides of the same coin.

This is the sort of white privilege that the Democratic Alliance can count on. So when Honourable Maimane makes sweeping statements about how his party has delivered, it is about White voters, White interests and not about the plight of poor Black people in Masipumelele in Houtbay, who are in a state of permanent emergency. There shacks can burn down every day and the world goes on, because, after all, it is not Bishop`s Court or Bantry Bay.

Honourable Maimane, you better listen very carefully. The DA`s success of making inroads into Black society will be determined by rigorous soul searching within the party of how they have overcome the prejudices they held before the dawn of freedom. Deal with the vestiges of the past in your party, only then can you hope to survive the tide of angry young people. Angry that they are still in the grip of a racially, untransformed society.

For the rest of your party, you will never know the pain of racial discrimination. At best, you can only imagine it. We know it, we have lived it through it and from across there we see the sneers that tell us you are not over your past. Carefully watch old footage of your party after you returned from a negotiation with the Deputy President and tell me what you see-in their faces in relation to yourself. Watch it.

Madam Speaker, we deliberately transformed a stifled, exclusive Parliament into a People`s Parliament with the intent of making this an institution that is owned by the people. We opened it up to live television. But, we did not do that to end up with a People`s Theatre.

I long for a time when every citizen can switch on to the channel for our debates and learn something new every day. Learn what we are doing in their name instead of the comic relief that it seems to provide.

And what is particularly disturbing is when someone with the experience of Honourable Lekota should stoop to the level of theatrics and make himself a national mampara. Not so long ago the Honourable Lekota was on these benches over here and would become so intolerant of the childish and disrespectful antics of the opposition. On one occasion he was so incensed that he burst a vein in his heart. Nobody is having a troubled heart over your desperate bid for attention.

Thank you Honourable Holomisa on your suggestion of the economic indaba, resembling that of Codesa. The rest of the Honourable Members were just howling, as you would well know. Honourable Van Damme, we are very seized with the matter of the youth. I trust you are equally seized with the matter of your citizenship.

To conclude, I revert to where I begun. "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and weak minds discuss people". Honourable Maimane has proved that he belongs to the latter category. As expected, he and his party offered no policy proposals or alternatives. It only expressed its obsession and hatred of the person of the President.

White supremacy triumphs when it transforms a promising young black man, with priestly pretensions, to proclaim with pride his hatred for the President. And he is applauded. The very same young man says nothing about conditions of squalor faced by his fellow blacks. In a sense his performance should not surprise us. He is already captured. No black soul left.

Putting the country first is the responsibility of all South Africans. No country has ever been built on hatred, Honourable Holomisa. In closing, great leaders like Mandela, are exemplary not because they never faced enormous obstacles, but because they were able to rise in spite of and to spite those hurdles. Let us find inspiration in their spirit of no surrender.

Issued by the ANC, 16 February 2016