National Assembly Cape Town: 12 February 2008  

Our Republic is in jeopardy and it will not be saved unless we return to the original ways and integrity of our liberation movement.  I am no stranger to ANC ethos and pathos.  The political soul of our struggle is known to me, for in my lifetime I have had the privilege to be part of them more than many members of this House.  

Dr. Pixley Seme was my uncle with whom I often stayed and for whom I ran errands.  I knew Rev John Langalibalele Dube, the first ANC President. I knew Dr. Alfred B. Xuma who hosted me in his home in Toby Street in Sophiatown.  His wife Mrs Madie Xuma used to call at my home in Kwaphindangene when organising the YWCA.  

Inkosi Albert Luthuli was one of my mentors until his tragic death. I was in communication with Mr. Nelson Mandela throughout his incarceration. I worked with Mr Oliver Tambo until the crucial meeting in London in 1979. Rev Canon James Calata, one of the stalwarts of the struggle, came all the way from Cradock to visit me in my home in Kwaphindangene.  

I cannot mention the long list of other leaders of our liberation struggle with whom I interacted but cannot omit Mr Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe.  

All these were men of integrity.  

More than many, the President knows the closeness of my working relationship with Mr Oliver Tambo as he was his right-hand man. At one time the President was sent to talk to me together with Albert Dlomo at Heathrow Airport when I was returning from Germany with the late Rev Enos Sikhakane.  

Since the meeting between the ANC and Inkatha's delegations in 1979, integrity grew thinner with great damage to the ANC's soul.  Constantly, undertakings were no longer fulfilled.  After that meeting, Mr Tambo, then President of the ANC, undertook to get in touch with me, but this did not happen.  Instead the sluice gates were opened and I was attacked and vilified.  

Madiba wrote to me just before he was released in 1989 stating that he would meet with me as soon as he was released for the two of us to deal with the violence between our members in the 80s and 90s. He was prevented by UDF and ANC leaders who, he said, almost "throttled" him.

When almost a year later we eventually met on the January 29, 1991 in Durban, our President was one of the scribes.  One of our agreements was that Mr Mandela and I should tour addressing joint ANC and Inkatha rallies. Mr Mandela agreed to doing this with me beginning from Taylors Halt in Pietermartizburg, but Mr Harry Gwala, the ANC Leader in the Province of Natal, took a busload of ANC leaders who read the Riot Act to Madiba who was told not to go with me to Taylors Halt.  

On the April 19, 1994, Madiba, Mr de Klerk, the then State President, and I signed a solemn Agreement that the institution of the monarchy and other constitutional issues would be dealt through International mediation. This agreement was dishonoured.   

After I was appointed by President Mandela as his Minister of Home Affairs, an invitation was sent to me and President Mandela, in his capacity as ANC President, from the people of Thokoza, both ANC and IFP.

They wanted us to unveil a monument erected as a memorial to members of both parties who died in that low-intensity civil war. This never happened.  In October 1999, the President, in his capacity of ANC President, and I did unveil the Thokoza Memorial. After doing so, we addressed a joint rally of ANC and Inkatha members. It was decided that we had to address other similar joint rallies throughout the country.

Again, it never happened. 

A few years ago, I wrote congratulatory letters to the current President of the ANC in his capacity as Deputy President and to the Secretary-General, now ANC Deputy-President, raising issues I felt had to be addressed jointly by us as people of integrity and in the interest of the Country. I did not even receive acknowledgement of receipt.   

A discussion took place at the Sheraton Hotel in Pretoria about five years ago between the President and myself. I was accompanied by the Secretary General of the IFP Rev Musa Zondi and Rev Celani Mtewa. The President was accompanied by the Secretary-General Mr. Kgalema Motlante and Mr Smuts Ngonyama. It was agreed that the memorandum outlining fundamental issues for our political system and the country was to be discussed further by a 15-a-side of ANC/IFP. It never happened.   

I could spend several hours in listing broken promises and lost opportunities, not for me, not for my party, but for our Country. 

We were born in, and lived through the season of hope at the times when many of us hoped against hope.  Our liberation fulfilled those hopes beyond the hopes of many, ushering in a unique season of opportunities.

We have had the opportunity of building the strongest democracy in our continent and forging a genuinely modern and yet uniquely African state.

After the season of hope and the season of opportunities, we are now entering what may become a dark season of regret; ---regrets as big as the opportunities presented to us which we forwent. 

Seizing on opportunities requires operating for the greater good above short term sectarian interests.  Huge opportunities have been missed, possibly forever, because the pursuance of the personal good, personal enrichment and personal advancement has overshadowed a genuine long-term strategy for the common good. 

In his address, the President was careful in avoiding many raw political nerves which I am sure are going to be harped on mercilessly during this debate.  I have never shied away from controversies and I am mindful how in ancient Athens, which was the cradle of democracy and civilization, it was a crime for any man to shy away from controversy; for debate was encouraged and even forced in respect of everything, especially controversy.  I too welcome controversy but we must ensure that the tone of our debate rises to the gravity of the moment and is inspired not by petty politics but by integrity.  We must shift away from politics reminding ourselves that at times of instability, as the present ones, only the Country matters, only the issues matter, only the people matter. 

We all know our national challenges, for they have been restated time and again in this Parliament by the President both this year and the preceding ones.  What is required is the necessary leadership to maximize the capacity of our State to successfully conquer them.  The President has admitted that the challenges have not changed but have become greater and possibly beyond our capacity to muster them within the present paradigm.  For this reason the President sought to shift the paradigm with a number of initiatives which he packaged under the catchy phrase of "business unusual".   

Most of what the President suggested shows a commitment to doing more of the same at perhaps a greater pace, with a little more money, more committees, more intergovernmental structures and a little of outside help.  It is with regret that I fear that this might not be enough.  The challenges of unemployment, growing poverty, widespread corruption, rampant criminality, uncontrolled HIV/AIDS and TB and escalating government inefficiency and corruption have grown larger and more intense year after year.  In addition a new challenge has been allowed to grow unattended in spite of my endless warnings in this House and elsewhere, which is the growing disintegration of the State as an apolitical independent, effective and efficient machine capable of delivering the policies of the day.   

I urge this House and the Nation to focus on the importance of institutions that anyone can respect in spite of how one feels about their incumbents.  As I pointed out at last year's debate, grave damage has been done to the Presidency as an institution; --and the events of the past three months have inflicted on it blows from which it may never recover.  We cannot proceed in dealing with any political issue until and unless we re-establish credibility and respect for the Presidency and other institutions; --which has more to do with the attitude of its detractors than with its incumbents.   

I am reminded of American actor John Wayne, who was no authority on constitutionalism, but when commenting on Kennedy having won over his favourite Nixon, he famously said "I didn't vote for him but he is my President and I hope he is going to do a darn good job at it".  This is what we must hope for South Africa.  The issue is not who leads us but where we are being led to, and how we are being led; --we wish not to be led by the nose deeper and deeper into the season of regrets. 

It does not matter who leads us if we cannot steer our course away from the path to slow self destruction.  The easy way out is to discuss leadership issues and plunge into politics rather than rising to the hard task of dealing with the real issues and living up to one's own political responsibility.  There is no point in discussing any change unless there is a serene and objective debate of what went right and what went wrong. 

The President reminded us of the course on which we originally embarked fourteen years ago and he assured us that we remain on that course.  We committed ourselves to that course which remains the blueprint for a new South Africa.  But we must accept that the machinery required to move us down that path has failed us, because it moved away from the service of the greater good and a long-term vision to serve a small circle of few rich and powerful.  

Inkosi Albert Luthuli would be the first to disown a government in which Premiers helped themselves before helping the people, government officials steal and policies are developed not with the people in mind but in consideration of those who can enrich themselves through their implementation.  I can just imagine how harshly Inkosi Albert Luthuli would speak to us all if he stood in my stead in this place at this time.  He would curse those who allowed the fruits of our liberation to rot at the tree, as a short summer of opportunity gives way to an early and harsh winter of regret. 

We must regain our political soul in a way in which is uncompromising and unselfish.  The judiciary must be competent and independent not 99% but 100% or otherwise it will be 1% corrupt and lazy.  The public service must be 100% loyal and corruption free, and not 99% for otherwise it will be 1% made of crooks and thieves. The police must be 100% capacitated and beyond political manipulation, and not 99% for otherwise it will be 1% hopeless and crooked. Political representatives must be 100% committed to public service and the greater good of our Republic and not 99%, because that 1% of their own personal greed and self promotion is treason. In the service of our people 99% loyalty is 1% treason.   

We do not need a new shift into a "business unusual" mode.  We must review what we have done until now and accept that if our business of government had been conducted as it was meant to, it would have succeeded.  Many people have been on "business unusual" until now as they slept, went to cocktail parties, travelled the world, became richer and made a few of their friends prosperous while the majority of South Africans became poorer and poorer by the day; --crime grew rampant in all our communities especially the poorer; --our industrial basis shrank reducing our country's future role in the world; --our infrastructures became obsolete; --the massive domestic and international effort made to counter the HIV/AIDS pandemic failed; --our institutions of government slowly crumbled under political interference and lack of integrity, competence and professionalism of the politically deployed incumbents; --provinces were emasculated and turned into puppets; --the institutions of traditional leadership were obliterated, --the promised measures to give flexibility to the labour market never came about; --and the lights slowly began going out foreshadowing a similar imminent breakdown in the rest of our country's infrastructural backbone.   

Everyone will need to live with his regrets.  For eighteen years, since we altogether began forging our new South African Republic, I tried my utmost to focus our collective attention on the importance of properly functioning institutions of government, ranging from provinces to traditional leadership.  And I called our attention on the need to liberalise market forces.  Instead, our unusual business, made usual, moved on the basis of a schizophrenic dichotomy between what was being said and what was being done.  

Independent institutions were established and then immediately staffed with politically deployed party functionaries reporting to a centralized centre of power operating in an environment in which a genuine culture of independence could not flourish.  Provinces were established but they have now been so emasculated of their powers, autonomy and ingenuity that in their present form they have become a liability rather than an asset to our democracy.  So much has been centralized that the core of our government is bound to soon collapse under its own weight.  Yet the President has suggested even greater centralisation in the package of measures he announced, which includes super committees, supervising committees coordinating organs of State which should be responsible to perform the required function in the first place but could not do so because their autonomy and initiative were impaired.  

Similarly, while paying lip service to the cause of liberalization of market forces for the past 15 years, in truth doing business in South Africa has become far more difficult; --cartels and monopolies have grown and prospered; --politics and political deal-making control our economy; --the infectious and corrupting influence of the State and its corrupt tender practices has infected vast segments of our economy; --exchange controls have not been lifted and our country has become much more economically inefficient than it was when liberation took place.   

The many promises to provide a significant role for the institution of traditional leadership were betrayed with dramatic consequences which have not yet fully come to pass.  I shall just mention one example of a dramatic split between policies and reality and of a government at war with itself.   

In September 2002 KwaZulu Natal traditional leaders set up an HIV/Aids taskforce which to everyone's assessment was the ideal mechanism to deliver HIV/Aids programmes in rural areas.  Minister of Health Dr. M. E. Tshabalala-Msimang, accompanied by provincial Minister Dr. Mkhize, met with the KwaZulu Natal House of Traditional Leaders and praised this task force.  On February 7, 2008, just the day before the President spoke, the Minister of Health presented to all the Houses of Traditional Leaders an HIV/Aids National Strategic Plan 2007-20011, which no-one cannot find fault with. This strategy calls on the contribution of traditional leaders towards the fight against HIV/Aids.  In her invitation Minister Tshabalala-Msimang tabled the need "to strengthen the capacity of traditional leaders to design and implement HIV/Aids policies and programmes" 

On that occasion I reminded the Minister how the task team did not take off because the KwaZulu Natal provincial government has refused to provide any resources in spite of the House of Traditional Leaders being listed as an entity in terms of the PFMA as capable of receiving and spending public funds.  Our colleague Inkosi Patekile Holomisa informed me that he and Inkosi Matanzima had pointed out the same lack of resources and capacity. 

The President was made aware of a broad range of issues affecting traditional leadership, including the capacitation of the House and requested Minister Mufamadi to visit the Premier of KwaZulu Natal together with Inkosi Mzimela to deal with the matter.  This never happened.  

Responding to Mr. Smith, MP's accusation of "the government [being] totally dishonest in dealing with traditional leadership", Minister Mufamadi stated that in this House that "what is happening in KwaZulu Natal is a matter of grave concern to us . and the Chairperson of the National House of Traditional Leaders, Inkosi Mzimela and I have been in discussions which led to the agreement that we are going to intervene and exorcise this ghost out of the body politics of our Country." He then personally assured that he would go to KwaZulu Natal as originally instructed by the President to deal with the issue of capacitation of traditional leaders.  None of this happened.   

Traditional leaders should be part of the envisaged HIV/Aids war room but what else can they do there but being mere spectators with no role to play, in spite of anyone sane recognizing that without them life saving HIV/Aids programmes cannot succeed in rural area?           

What progress can be made when a Minister of State has the temerity of saying one thing in Parliament and doing its opposite and conducts himself as if he abhors telling the truth even when in Parliament?  It is no surprise that plans are being considered to repeal provincial powers even though the matter has not been discussed in this House beforehand.  This conduct exemplifies a lack of integrity which is so far removed from the ANC culture of its funding fathers, but which has regretfully become usual. 

The President has given us as a good framework in many respects, but this case exemplifies Robert Burns' saying that "the best laid schemes of mice and men gang oft' a-gley" .  

Our usual way of doing business for the past fifteen years has been unusual indeed, and has not been what it was supposed to be.  If we accept this, we can move forward and do what was right in the first place.  I have not said today things which are substantially different from what I have said in the past thirteen years on these occasions, for the challenges have not changed.  What must change is the way in which we deal with them, which requires to do more of what is planned and engage less in political posturing. 

There is temptation in this House to find the easy way out of the huge institutional crisis in which our Republic has plunged by resorting to political opportunism and politicking.  I urge that we not to walk down such a road.  The urgency of the time requires focusing on the real issues affecting our people which have not changed save for their having become worse.   

What must change is how this Parliament deals with these issues.  Thus far this Parliament has failed its role.  Ours has been a Parliament on call operating at the bidding of the Executive with no own capacity to analyse, criticize, lead and hold accountable.  This Parliament has failed our Republic because it has been led by the nose rather than exercise its constitutional responsibility of leading, formulating laws and developing policies.  Bills are handed down to us for us to merely approve.  Any review of the about 900 pieces of legislation passed by this Parliament in the past 13 years shows how whatever was introduced by the Executive was approved by us with little or no substantive change, and that almost nothing was generated from within Parliament at its members' initiative. 

The present crisis must bring about the centrality and pre-eminence of Parliament.  If there is a power vacuum, this vacuum needs to be filled by the expanded policy role and leadership capacity of this Parliament.

We can only save our Republic by doing what the Constitution requires of us, which is not only for the judiciary to be independent, the police to be effective and our public service to be honest and motivated.  But it is also for us as the legislative branch to become the power house and real centre of policy formulation, legislative initiative and political accountability; --which would indeed be "business unusual" and but a necessary one. 

A year ago I tabled a Bill which would have split the offices of head of State and head of government.  Irrespective of what one may think of it, it was a timely, urgent and relevant proposal, but this Parliament did not even consider it because it was not part of the government's agenda.

Yet, as a legislature we have the responsibility and prerogative of setting that agenda.  Let us take the initiative so that we may still capture out of the jaws of regret, some of the lost opportunities and with them fulfil our people's hope. 

I thank you.