By October 1977 the Black Consciousness Movement had produced tons of literature on the political situation of our time. The white minority regime banned all BC organisations and two newspapers on October 19 and confiscated virtually all black writings. It is now claimed that this literature was destroyed. BC was known for writing. At 26, Steve Biko was already an established author and political commentator of world-wide stature.

If “Utlwang AZAPO” is an attempt to revive the spirit of Black Consciousness, which I believe it should be, then it must be seen as a first step in a long journey to reconstruct what the BC established over a decade of writings which influenced black thinking in a way nothing to this day has ever been able to do. The wanton destruction of BC literature twenty three years ago robbed black politics of a perspective that would have enhanced the present democracy.

The compilation is not about one person and the party he represents: it is compulsory reading for the population, and politicians of all persuasions should draw an inspiration from it. It is shameful that such intellect was excluded from the national debate on account of race, and by less talented individuals at that.

Mosibudi Mangena, himself a writer of note, adds perspective to the national assembly debate sorely missed up to now. It comes as no surprise that he is today one of the most sought–after politicians in the country. It is even more fitting that his Parliamentary speeches are compiled by the former Secretary General of both the erstwhile BCMA and AZAPO, who lived in exile for many years with Mosibudi Mangena.

Don Kgalake Nkadimeng

Secretary General - AZAPO

15/01/2001

RESPONSE TO THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT 28/06/99

Madam Speaker

The address by the President in this House on Friday, 25 June 1999 strummed harmonious chords in the hearts of many a citizen in this country. It dwelt on the themes such as hope, a caring society, dignity and the construction of a people-centered society.

To that end, the address pledged to all of us better safety and security in our homes and streets, improved delivery of social services such as education, health and others, more vigorous job-creation efforts to help the huge and desperate army of the unemployed.

AZAPO urges full speed. We will not only cheer the successes in this direction, but will lend a shoulder to the wheel where required. We will not celebrate the failure of the government, because those failures mean a set-back on the part of the forces of change to transform the lives of the majority of the people in a positive direction. It means the fulfillment of the aspirations and ideals of all those who struggled for freedom and social justice are postponed.

We will cheer every little achievement because we want the government to do more than just deliver social services. Despite the fact that the masses of the people voted twice in democratic elections, the economic and social conditions of the majority of our people remain bad, if not worse. In the terminology of the President, we still have two nations.

The minority nation owns 90% of the wealth of this country and by that fact owns all those of us who are of a darker hue. The majority nation wakes up every morning in its millions from its shacks, townships and villages, and travels by bus, taxi, train and bicycles to report in the kitchens, mines, factories, supermarkets, or on the farms of the minority nation and say “Môre Baas; Môre Missus, ek het werk toe gekom”.

This movement is one direction in the morning and opposite in the afternoon, never otherwise. Even the representatives of the people, such as the Honourable

Members in this house, are similarly owned. Our salaries are in the banks of the minority nation, the food we eat is produced in their farms and bought from their supermarkets, the soap and perfumes we use is produced by them, the clothes on our backs are bought from their shops, the cars we drive are from their garages, the bonds of the houses we live in are in their banks, the insurance policies for our cars and houses, the life insurance policies to buy coffins and feed mourners when our end comes, are all with their insurance companies.

And of course business in this house and elsewhere in the country is conducted in the language, idiom and style of the minority nation. While the poor majority nation is clamouring for houses and other social services, the minority nation does not; they can build their own houses. All they want is protection from robbers and thieves. This situation is as undesirable as it is unsustainable.

We should work purposefully and diligently towards the dissolution of the two nations into one. That can only be done by making the majority nation meaningful owners and controllers of the economy of this country. The government must lead the way in our charge towards that objective.

The delivery of social services will help, but it cannot be an end in itself. More needs to be done. This house and the government of the majority should not be allowed to be mere manjikilane over the property of a minority nation.

The future of our children, their happiness and the entrenchment of democracy depend on the progress we make towards the eradication of the existence of two nations in one country. Your role in that task is as big as your Presidential office.

THREE MINUTE CONTRIBUTION ON THE "PREVENTION OF ORGANISED CRIME SECOND AMENDMENT BILL, DEBATE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY - 01/09/1999

Madam Speaker

Some of us know many a crook, a thief, a racketeer or gangster living in our neighbourhood or communities. They drive flashy cars, dress smart, live well and entertain in a mighty fashion. We might not have evidence to put them behind bars, but we know their wealth is not a result of hard, honest labour.

They are an attraction to many people, role models to a lot of youngsters eager to make a quick buck and lead a luxurious lifestyle attended by much song, dance, drink and indulgent company. Unless society takes glamour out of crime, that scourge will haunt this country forever.

It is against this background, Madam Speaker, that the spectacle of the judiciary and the legislature engaging in a tortuous and contortionist quarrel about the meaning of words and phrases while racketeers, gangsters, drug peddlers and others of their ilk are laughing all the way to the bank to enjoy the fruits of their ill-gotten wealth, is most disconcerting and unfortunate.

All components of the state, including this house and the judiciary, are supposed to be in the same corner, protecting citizens against criminality. This is the most fundamental as well as the most elementary of the duties of the state. Citizens pay taxes to the state not only to be ruled, but to be protected and to live in a safe environment.

The population of this country must have been dismayed to see their supposed protectors engaging in an esoteric and lofty debate whilst suspected fruits of criminal activity are shunted back and forth in trucks. There might indeed exist legal technicalities giving rise to that situation, but to ordinary, honest law abiding citizens out there, this is yet another proof that the state is unable to deal with criminals effectively.

It must indeed be morale sapping. Those of us who were part of the Ad Hoc Committee charged with the preparation of the amendments now before this

house, suffered the pain of sitting through sessions where those among us with legal training struggled to find words, phrases and definitions that will make it difficult to anyone to frustrate the intentions of this law.

Further, we also agonized through some moral and philosophical questions. Is anyone any more entitled to the proceeds of crime if they committed their criminal acts before a certain date? What kind of a message are we putting out as a society? AZAPO hopes that after the enactment of these amendments, the judiciary and other law enforcement agencies will be at one, and that the criminals will feel the full force of the law, and that law-abiding citizens will be the winners.

THREE MINUTE RESPONSE TO THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT IN PARLIAMENT, 02/09/1999

Madam Speaker

Unemployment is a serious problem in our country. Surveys put it at somewhere between 30-40%. The job summit held earlier this year attended by the government, business, labour and other social groups, was one of the many attempts being made to address the problem.

However, jobs continue to be lost by the thousand in both the private and public sectors and young people find it more and more difficult to enter the job market. It is an area where very little success is recorded.

Clearly, unemployment breeds many social problems. People who have no income cannot feed their children, clothe them or provide decent education for them. Such deprived children are more likely to end up as street kids than others.

Unemployed people are more likely to end up in a mkhukhu than others and even if they live in a decent house, they are unlikely to afford the payment of basic services provided there.

Crime festers better in an environment of want and deprivation than elsewhere. Drug traffickers, syndicate gangs, pimps and other crooked elements thrive better in a situation where many are hungry and desperate for survival. And so the problems multiply.

The Ministry of Public Works announced a few initiatives to provide relief in some of the more depressed parts of our country. But it seems a more comprehensive strategy is required to address this huge and escalating problem.

In conclusion, may I congratulate the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the splendid role she has so far played in the resolution of the problems of the Great Lake area. Dit is maar skitterrend. There were times when she seemed to cut a lonely figure jetting in and out of our country, and at times camping in foreign capitals for weeks. Now her efforts seem to be bearing promising fruits. We are contributing towards peace and stability on our continent. Ka nnete ke mosadi wa basadi, o di hlatlola di eswa. Re ya mo lebogisa. Re re a se ke a lapa.

FOUR MINUTE INPUT IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE ON: "THE PROMOTION OF CULTURAL, LINGUISTIC AND RELIGIOUS RIGHTS OF ALL SOUTH AFRICANS". 16/09/99

The only people who should have no complaints when it comes to issues of language, culture and religion in this country are the English speakers. Everyone else has, or has to. The English language dominates absolutely in all spheres of our lives, such as law, commerce, communication in all its aspects and so on. This English does at the expense of all the other ten languages.

Their religious institutions are in good shape. The same cannot be said for the others. Because culture is inextricably linked to language, it is English culture that pervades in the arts, literature, television, music and other aspects of our lives. The country is being inexorably Anglicised.

The guarantee by our constitution of the equality of all our languages is an integral part of the democratic values we seek to establish for ourselves. Language is power, and if your language is taken away from you, or your ability to use your language to communicate or receive information is diminished, so will your democratic rights be diminished. For those millions of people out there in whose name this house is gathered, the proceedings mean nothing if they are conducted in a language they do not understand.

The failure by our country to develop and promote all our languages is disempowering a huge percentage of the population. Citizens become alienated from their institutions and processes taking place in those institutions. The system, not the constitution, forces children as young as six years to learn English before they could start learning concepts. This puts a majority of Black children in particular, at a huge disadvantage, and puts English children streets ahead in the classroom.

Even in this house, there are many of us who are disadvantaged by the pervasive use of the English language. Of course the constitution allows us to use any of the eleven languages, anywhere, including in this house, but the system and convention make the use of other languages more of an aberration than the norm.

Madam Speaker, the socialization of our children, the transmission of culture, values and morality from generation to generation takes place mainly through the medium of language.

The prevailing view that we seem to have lost our youth, that there is general erosion of the moral fibre of society, which in turn leads to all sorts of anti-social behaviour, could be attributable to the alienation between elders and young people as a direct consequence of the decline of our languages and therefore culture. Many are disorientated and lost.

To make our society better and stronger in as far as democratic credentials are concerned, we should:

1. Deliberately and purposefully promote multilingualism in our country

2. Strengthen the teaching of all our languages in schools, especially at primary level

3. Produce more books, magazines and newspapers in other languages

4. Substantially increase programmes on television in our languages

Empower and strengthen our languages by making them mediums for teaching, commerce, legal work and so on.

A TWO MINUTE INPUT ON THE “RENTAL HOUSING BILL”, NA, 21 SEPTEMBER 1999

Draconian measures under the pass laws were used by the apartheid state to restrict the natural movement of the majority Africans from place to place, but particularly from rural to urban areas. The death of these laws unleashed a surge of large numbers of people from rural to urban areas and from dorpies to large cities.

This surge is one of the important factors putting pressure on the housing sector in our country. The enormous backlog in housing and the large numbers of our people living in mikhukhu or substandard dwellings or completely homeless bear testimony to this. Around two million of our citizens live in mikhukhu or some other type of substandard dwelling.

In this situation mutual abuse between landlords and tenants and the degradation of rented property abound. It is obvious that if people are to be encouraged to develop more properties for renting at the same time as tenants are protected and treated with greater fairness and justice, we should have adequate legislation to regulate the rental housing market. We therefore whole-heartedly welcome this Bill.

May we go further and urge the Housing Ministry to establish a housing parastatal to build houses for both rented and purchase purposes. Under the present arrangements, the private sector has too great a stake in the provision of accommodation for our people.

We need a state owned housing company to tackle the huge housing backlog and get rid of the ubiquitous mikhukhu which are sprawling out of control in almost every city and town in our country.

Many people in these shacks might not have the capital to build a house for themselves, but they ought to have money to pay reasonable rent if appropriate dwellings could be made available. And when that happens, that housing parastatal would become a landlord and this bill will apply to its operations as well.

SNAP DEBATE IN THE NA ON THE SHOOTING AT TEMPE MILITARY BASE, 21 SEPTEMBER 1999

Our condolences go to the families of those who were so tragically killed at the Tempe Military Base. We wish those who were injured a speedy and permanent recovery.

All is not well at Tempe. Murmurs of bad race relations, split loyalties and poor administration at Tempe has been heard. It was at Tempe where some soldiers celebrated the Kasinga massacre well after the political democratization of this country.

It was at Tempe where a truck loaded with weapons was hijacked by some soldiers who went on to murder their colleagues who were in charge of the truck and dumped their bodies in a river. It was a soldier from Tempe who shot dead some of his colleagues while on patrol near the Lesotho border.

The British military advisors are reported to have warned about an impending explosion at Tempe because of a whole set of problems pertaining to integration and racist attitudes. Now we have this absolute waste of eight valuable lives lost at the same Tempe military base.

This country cannot afford a defence force that is divided against itself. A defence force that cannibalises itself is worth nothing. How can the SANDF fulfil its duty to protect the nation and the territorial integrity of the country if its members trade their guns against one another?

Before the SANDF can defend the country, it must first be at peace with itself, disciplined and united within its own ranks.This parliament cannot but urge the Ministry of Defence and the Portfolio Committee on Defence to get to the bottom of whatever is happening at Tempe and everywhere else in the SANDF and take whatever decisive steps are necessary to correct the situation. Let there be no more tragic and disgraceful incidents in the army.

TRIBUTE TO MWALIMU NYERERE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, 20TH OCTOBER 1999.

It is hard to relate the story of the liberation struggle of Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia and indeed our own country without putting Mwalimu Kambarage Nyerere at the centre of it. To colonialists and racist oppressors he was the father of all terrorists. But to all African patriots fighting for freedom he was a soldier, a cadre, a leader, a philosopher and a tempered and tested Pan-Africanist. Because to him the struggle of every African was his own, he opened the borders of Tanzania to all freedom fighters and shared whatever his country could offer with fellow fighters.

In his own country, he forged a strong sense of national unity based on shared language, culture and patriotism. He led by example. He was the epitome of simplicity, humility and modesty. His tastes in dress, mobility, housing and lifestyle were in tune with the modest condition of the majority of Tanzanians. Mwalimu eschewed pomposity, extravagance and the arrogance of power. In this regard, he has left our continent a legacy that would be hard to follow. Most leaders can't resist the temptation to live far above the standard of living of their population.

After his retirement from the Presidency of Tanzania, Mwalimu Nyerere played the role of a wise elder African statesman with finesse and integrity. He quietly and diligently went about advising about and helping many a leader on the continent with the solutions of some of their problems. An intractable problem he put his energies into was the internal conflict in Burundi.

His role in championing the cause of the ACP countries in their economic dealings with Western countries was just as large and skillful as only Nyerere could do. Mwalimu was a wise African elder statesman we all loved and respected. His departure leaves a yawning gap that would be difficult to fill. But his work, memory and name will live forever on this continent and within its people.

A TWO MINUTE ADDRESS TO THE NA ON THE "AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS DAY", 21 OCTOBER 1999.

In his beautiful song entitled "Time Will Tell", the reggae music legend Bob Marley sings: "You think you are in heaven but you're living in Hell. Time will tell, Oh, time will tell." We are reputed to have one of the best constitutions in the world, one that guaranties even rights that many a compatriot did not know existed before 1994. The rights are safely embedded in the constitution and guarded by an independent Human Rights Commission, the more specialised Gender Commission and other relevant bodies.

But what have these wonderful constitutional arrangements to do with the day-to-day lives of our people? Are the women in our country any better than the women across the border when one of our own women is raped every 27 seconds? Can we stand on roof tops and trumpet to the world that we have a Gender Commission that protects the rights of women and promotes their status when the same women can't walk the street of their neighbourhoods in dignity and safety?

Are we able to reconcile our elegant constitutional arrangements with the fear we all have of rampant crime? With the fact that in one week two public representatives, members of this House were hijacked, one of whom was shot and seriously wounded?

To what extent are the human rights enshrined in the constitution diminished by poverty in our country? What do these rights mean to children sleeping rough on the streets under plastics? To the 30% unemployed and those living in shacks?

What do these rights mean to the more than a third of our population, who cannot read and write, who do not know about the existence of the Human Rights Commission? Whilst Africa Human Rights Day gives us an opportunity to reflect on the state of human rights on our continent, it also calls upon us to ponder the ironies and gross imperfections of our own society. Yes, the paper work is done and looks pretty, but a lot of work still needs to be done to give meaning to the lofty principles. We hope that most of us do not think we are in heaven yet, and that we will not wait for Bob Marley's time to tell us if we are in hell. We ought to be cleverer than that.

THE INCIDENCE OF RAPE AND OTHER FORMS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN - CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS. NA DEBATE, 26/10/1999.

Two weekends ago, Matlakala Khumalo, who is 18 years old and Mantja Khumalo 24, were sleeping in their house in Orange Farm in the Vaal when three thugs broke in. They pinned the young girl to the floor; put a gun to her head and proceeded to gang rape her.

Mantja, who hid under the bed in her own bedroom when she heard the commotion, crawled out when the screams and agony and pain of the girl being raped got too much for her. The brutes turned on her and gang raped her too.

Matlakala is supposed to be writing matric now as we debate in this house with its soft chairs and carpeted floors. She wanted to be an accountant. She was dreaming beautiful dreams about her future, like all our sons and daughters are supposed to do at their age.

But how can she write matric when in addition to the trauma, defilement and pain of gang rape, she fears she might have been impregnated by any of the brutal hooligans who pounced upon her in the middle of the night?

She is afraid she might be infected with the AIDS virus. She is not Charlene Smith, who is mature and knowledgeable. She does not know about AZT or how to go about demanding it from the health authorities. She is shattered.

Matlakala and Mantja just add to the soaring statistics of the rape of women and children in our country. We, sitting in this house, are part of the machinery that must protect women against this scourge. There is an alarming decline on morality in our society, accompanied by an arrogant contempt for law and order.

The appalling standards of law enforcement running through the criminal justice system, from the police, through the courts up to the prisons, give comfort to those elements who are bent on preying upon others.

Of course poverty, unemployment, homelessness, the inadequacy of the education system to train and channel the minds and energies of the youth in the right direction, all combine to produce the ugly society in which we live in today.

There is no single and simple solution for this problem. A comprehensive strategy to address the socio-economic difficulties of our country is definitely required as a background against which specific remedies could be pursued. It should be obvious to all that a horribly unequal society like ours, where some live in obvious and conspicuous wealth while others live in grinding squalor, is an unhealthy society bound to generate resentment, alienation and difficult personalities.

We need organisations of women, some of men, but also organisations that bring men and women together specifically to address the problems of rape and violence in the home. Rape is not a woman's problem. It is not a man's problem either. It is a problem of society and society must solve it. The rapists are our sons, our brothers and our fathers. How come they turn against their mothers, sisters or wives or girlfriends? Is there something wrong in the way in which boys are brought up? Are there some factors in society at present which breed rapists and violent men?

We need to answer these questions together at the same time as we put together a criminal justice system that will be able to protect Matlakala, Mantja and the other women out there who are the constant victims of rape and other kinds of violence against women.

A TWO MINUTE INPUT ON THE "EDUCATION AMENDMENT BILL" DEBATE, NA - 26/10/1999.

Education is an area of great anxiety, pain and passion on the part of many a parent in our country. It is something of a mess at the moment and the Minister of Education has expressed his deepest concern about the situation.

Education is also another sphere of our lives where the inequalities among the races play themselves out. This explains in part the reason why Black kids, from kindergarten up to the highest grade of school, are carted out of the townships by the bus load, taxi load and car load into the cities where parents believe facilities, teachers and therefore standards of education, are better.

Education is also a powerful tool for the socialization of the young and the transmission of cultural values from one generation to the next. Strong feelings by some communities for mother tongue instruction and desire to determine who teaches and under what circumstances, could be viewed in this light.

The amendments before this house deal with such issues as the availing of school premises for ABET classes, the transfer of educators in times of need, temporary closure of schools in emergencies, merger of schools in an area, disciplinary issues and procedures pertaining to learners.

These ought to be mundane matters witnessing a great deal of consensus among us. But the debates in the portfolio committee were tortuous and difficult, precisely because issues of resources to schools, race, socialization, language and culture manifest themselves in education.

AZAPO supports the amendments and hopes that there will be more trust, good will and cooperative spirit among the teachers, parents, school governing bodies and the education department. An adversarial stance can never be in the interests of education or our children.

The sooner we all link hands to sort out the mess in our education, the better.

NA DEBATE ON THE "NUCLEAR ENERGY BILL" AND "NATIONAL NUCLEAR REGULATOR BILL" 28/10/1999.

Nuclear energy is controversial all over the world. When harnessed for war purposes it is devastating and horrible. Hiroshima testifies to that. The fact that a few so-called nuclear powers have stockpiled enough nuclear weapons to destroy all life on our planet many times over gives humanity nightmares.

The attempts by nuclear powers to restrict possession of such weapons to their select club, opens another contentious debate in this area. India and Pakistan, who tested their nuclear devices recently, would argue what right do these powers have to criticize them when they themselves possess enormous arsenals of the same weapons.

The problems of nuclear energy are compounded by the fact that even when used for peaceful purposes, such as the generation of electricity or the powering of vessels, every accident is potentially life threatening. If it does not kill people outright, it could contaminate water, plants and the atmosphere, triggering cancer and other diseases in people and animals. Chernobyl and other such recent accidents illustrate the point.

Further, many by-products of nuclear enrichment processes are themselves radioactive, difficult to store, transport or destroy. Despite all these, nuclear energy and related technologies have beneficial uses for humanity. Along with information technology, it is an area of vigorous human activity, research and invention.

AZAPO supports the two Bills before this house on the understanding that:

Firstly, our country engages in nuclear activities within the context of its relinquishing of the power, capability and technology to manufacture nuclear weapons. Our endeavors in this context are peaceful and geared at advancing the welfare of our people and humanity at large. This is made clear in Section 2 of both Bills.

Secondly, our activities in nuclear matters will adhere to international rules, regulations and agreements as contained in the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Section 33 of the Nuclear Energy Bill and other provisions elsewhere make that clear.

Thirdly, the transportation of nuclear material, including nuclear waste is catered for in order to protect us and our environment against nuclear pollution. Sections 6 and 17 of the National Nuclear Regulation Bill cover this aspect adequately.

We hope however, that obtaining a nuclear license to sail in our waters or anchor a nuclear powered vessel or one carrying such material, would be as difficult as it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. In particular, having given up our own ability to possess nuclear weapons, we should not allow any vessel carrying nuclear warheads to enter our territorial waters.

Fourthly, our pursuance of nuclear activities will be done within the highest standards of safety and responsibility. Sections 2, 29 and 34 of the Nuclear Energy Bill take care of this adequately.

Fifthly, our scientists are being afforded an opportunity through these Bills, to engage in nuclear research and to develop related technologies. Young people will also be able to obtain scholarships to pursue studies in the area of nuclear physics and related fields. All those are provided for in section 13 of the Nuclear Energy Bill.

Possessing most of the relevant minerals and having the know-how and technology, it would be a shame if we did not pursue this area of activity. Fortunately, these two Bills enable us to do so in safety, security and honour.

NA DEBATE ON THE "HIGHER EDUCATION AMENDMENT BILL" AND "NATIONAL STUDENT FINANCIAL AID SCHEME BILL". 15 November 1999.

The launching of a national student financial aid scheme is one of the greatest services this nation can render to its young. The scheme will open enormous opportunities for tertiary education to a lot of young people graduating from high school.

In the past, we have seen countless battles by Black students, in particular, against financial exclusion at almost all our institutions of higher learning. With the launching of this scheme, these battles must surely come to an end. Gone will be the days where academically able students were denied an opportunity to acquire qualifications at our universities and technikons simply because they were poor.

The entrenchment of democracy in our country and its sustenance will depend, among other things, on the economic advances that Blacks make. The provision of knowledge, training and skills development are essential elements of that meaningful participation in the economy of the country.

Beyond that, it is a sound policy on the part of every country to invest resources in the development of its people, particularly the young. Scientific and technological advances in the world today dictate that if we are to be worthy citizens of the community of nations, we should educate ourselves. This scheme facilitates and promotes that process.

The Bill before us provides for comprehensive but fair mechanisms to recover loans from borrowers so that the scheme could, after a period, become almost self-sustaining. That's a crucial element to ensure that the scheme is affordable and sustainable.

The Higher Education Amendment Bill deals mainly with structural and administrative matters relating to institutions of higher learning. It is intended to make these institutions more accountable and to allow quicker intervention by the Minister of Education in the event of serious financial maladministration at these institutions.

AZAPO supports both bills without reservation.

NA DEBATE ON "COMMEMORATION OF THE ANGLO-BOER WAR AND LESSONS LEARNT, 16 November 1999

Black people, i.e. Africans, Coloureds and Asians, have absolutely no business nor justification to commemorate the Anglo-Boer War. Commemoration means celebration with speech, writing and ceremony. If we have any pride at all, we cannot commemorate our own conquest, humiliation, oppression and exploitation.

The Anglo-Boer War was a clash between British imperialism and Afrikaner nationalism. But the content of that struggle between the two was ownership of the land, the wealth contained therein and of the indigenous population - ownership of the native population either as slaves or pseudo-slaves.

The British mission in Africa was summarised by Cecil John Rhodes when he said: "If there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is to paint as much of Africa British-red as possible and to do what I can elsewhere to promote the unity and extend the influence of the English-speaking race."

Initially, the Dutch East India Company had no intention to colonise the Southern most tip of Africa. But a succession of crop failures led to the emergence of "free burghers" with their own farms further inland. The principle of the right to conquest was established by Van Riebeck and the indigenous people were dispossessed of their grazing lands.

Not long thereafter, the free burghers got a taste of liberty and finally escaped the influence of the Dutch East India Company altogether by moving further inland. According to historian Thabilta Jackson; within a few years a new people had developed, calling themselves Afrikaners and speaking a creolised form of Dutch called Afrikaans. And two kinds of Afrikaners emerged: there was the settler who remained near Cape Town, growing wheat or making wine.

The other was the trek Boer who was a wandering individualist whose main comforts in his lonely frontier existence were the teachings of the Dutch Calvinist Church. He felt himself to be one of the Elect of God, innately superior to the natives. He surrounded himself with these natives so that they could perform the necessary hard manual labour for him. It was this brand of an Afrikaner that gave the British so much trouble.

The two so-called Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Oranje came about as a result of the abolition of slavery in the Cape and the subsequent "Great Trek". The discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886 intensified the determination of the British to bring these two Boer republics under British rule.

The Anglo-Boer war was essentially about who controls the territory called South Africa and the wealth it possesses. When that war broke out on the 11th October 1889, all the African ethnic groups had been defeated and subjugated to white rule.

At the beginning of the war, during the war and at the end of the war, the British and the Boers were agreed that the inferior Africans must be kept out of the hostilities. We ultimately got caught up in it because:

(a) We were the majority in this territory

(b) The imperatives of war forced the combatants to make use of us one way or another

Of course we were wrong. We had made the same mistake we committed when we fought in the 2nd World War with the hope of a better deal at the end. It was not to be. At the end of the Anglo-Boer war, the Europeans, the British and the Boers, agreed on a political, social and economic arrangement that condemned us to generations of servitude, poverty and oppression.

Our oppression did not lessen, but intensified as a result of the settlement after the war. Our lack of political rights, rampant discrimination, the systematic programmes of land robbery, the denial of decent social services such as education, health, roads and so on, all stem from that settlement or were confirmed by it.

The struggles we had to wage to free ourselves, the suffering that struggle caused, the deaths of the likes of Biko, Hani, Sobukwe and thousands others, all stem from that.

The British and the Boers might celebrate a partnership that brought their descendants so much power and prosperity in this country. We should have nothing to do with it.

EU/SADC TRADE PROTOCOL DEBATE IN THE NA: A TWO MINUTE INPUT, 16 November 1999

Many might be forgiven if they believed that the Trade talks between South Africa and the European Union is about whether you get tipsy in a restaurant drinking a liquid called Sherry or Port, or whether you get stoned drinking the same liquid from a bottle labelled Mampuru or Skokiana or Tototo, depending on whether the alcoholic beverage is manufactured in Europe or in South Africa.

Alcohol is the most that people hear and read about in as far as this trade deal is concerned. It is as if this country and the European Union are pre-occupied and obsessed with drunkenness.

It might serve us well to remember that when men imbibing a cocktail of urine and mampuru stormed the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park, the negotiators found themselves very close together, not at the table, but under the table where they were hiding. That might have helped a lot in pushing the negotiation forward.

The Minister of Trade and Industry might be well advised to mobilise the men in khakhi clothes, to supply them with generous quantities of the same cocktail of urine and mampuru, and let them facilitate a toenadering between the European and South African negotiators. Then we might just hear less about Sherry and Port and Mampuru and Umqombothi.

The truth is that the European Union preaches to us in the developing world about the virtues of economic liberalism and free trade, when their own trade dealings with us are characterised by excessive protectionism. They want to protect their farmers, their industries and their jobs. They would like to see us lying open and prostrate so they can take advantage of us in any way they desire.

Most of us would have thought that the signing of the deal on the 11th of October 1999 would herald the start of a more elegant discourse on the implementation of the historic deal. But alas, the heckling about bitter liquids continues.

The only way in which we can improve our own position in dealing with the developed world is to strengthen ourselves by developing a strong free trading zone in the SADC region. The SADC trade protocol is an important step in that direction. But it must be followed by a robust action plan to integrate economic activity in Southern Africa.

A RESPONSE TO A STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER OF HEALTH ON AZT, NA Tuesday, 16 November 1999.

The discourse around AZT is naturally emotional. It is a debate closely connected to rape and the HIV status of newborn infants, both of which are emotive subjects.

The general demand is that AZT be made available to rape victims and pregnant HIV positive women in particular. The medical fraternity accepts the fact that AZT is a useful drug; that it can cut the rate of transmission of mother to child of the AIDS virus by up to 50%.

So far, and as a matter of policy, the Ministry of health has not made the drug available in public health institutions. Either the drug was too expensive or its side effects were unacceptably severe. The result is that only the rich and privileged could access this drug and the vast majority of ordinary women raped or being HIV positive would not try their luck with the drug.

It seems it ought to be cheaper to give pregnant HIV positive mothers this drug than to treat HIV positive infants for all the opportunistic ailments that would invariably follow after their birth and which will persist until their death. The same argument ought to hold for rape victims.

In any case with the possible widespread availability of Nevirapine and others, which are reputed to be just as effective as AZT, but costing a fraction of what AZT costs, we hope the Ministry of Health will move quickly to make these drugs generally available.

The sooner we move away from emotive debates about AZT and concentrate our collective energies towards the fight against the scourge of HIV/AIDS and the rape of women and children, the better.

MILLENNIUM DEBATE, NA, 19 November 1999.

Time is inherent and fundamental in the universe. The orbiting of electrons around the nuclei in atoms is time precise; the beating of our hearts at given specified periods; our births and our deaths are connected to the number of times our hearts beat; the rotation of the earth and its orbiting around the sun giving us days and nights, seasons and years; and of course the expanding of the universe and the burning out of our sun which will one day lead to the end of life on our planet. All these are time bound and time connected.

The chronology of time however, and the naming of epochs are not determined by nature. Human beings, more often than not basing themselves on religious happenings such the birth of Jesus Christ, the birth of the prophet Mohamed and other such figures in other religions of the world, give us the different chronologies we now have in the world. The end of the millennium we are fussing so much about in the Christian calendar, is a non-event for other peoples of the world following different calendars.

The lives of people and therefore their histories, are not measured in decades or centuries, they are continuous. But life would be dull, boring and perhaps even confusing if we did not break up the time into quantities that we could label as epochs. We are therefore fully justified to fuss about the fact that we will be changing from the 1900's to the 2000's when we write dates; we are prudent to use that as an excuse to take stock of our condition and to dream about the future.

After more than four centuries of colonialism, wars of resistance, oppression, discrimination, strife and pain, we finish this century as a politically liberated people. We seem all set to build a more equal and just society where the colour of the skin of people, the language they speak at home, their religion or the region they come from, will not be a point of reference in as far as their rights and opportunities are concerned.

But that open society will not materialise as long as the squalor of the shacks of Crossroads, Alexandra, Inanda and Cator Manor are reserved only for people of a particular colour in our society; as long as one colour flies and drives, while another colour is packed like sardines in combis, buses and trains; as long as one colour hires, fires and accumulates profits, while another colour can only survive from one day to the next by selling its labour. Our challenge in the new millennium is to eradicate the determination of class by race. Then, and only then, will our children and their children, live in a happy and flourishing democracy.

We move into a new century at a time when the supremacy of capitalism as a world economic and political system is almost unchallenged. The consequences of that are that the poor and marginal countries of the world, particularly the former colonies in Africa, Asia and South America are at the mercy of the more affluent capitalist countries.

The much talked about globalisation actually means the virtual economic annexation of the developing countries by the economic giants of the West and Japan.

This supremacy of capitalism is facilitated by an explosion of production and consumption at a scale never seen before. The harnessing of science and technology in the production of goods and services is, ironically, producing mass unemployment the world over. We are yet to see what the contradiction of phenomenal wealth accumulation on the one hand, and the generation of mass poverty on the other, will produce.

Our struggle to create a more equal and just society in our own country, would have to be waged within this international milieu of gross inequality and major contradictions. A lot of skill and wisdom will be required to see us through the complexities and challenges of the dawning millennium. I believe we must, we can and we will manage.

INPUT ON THE "PREFERENTIAL PROCUREMENT POLICY FRAMEWORK BILL" DEBATE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, 21ST JANUARY 2000.

We might have a democratic constitution and we may enact laws to promote and enforce equality and democracy in our country, but if we are not able to effectively tackle the gross economic inequalities among the races we are not likely to get very far.

The most dangerous threat to this democracy and good social order in this country is the widespread abject poverty among the majority Blacks and obvious affluence among the minority white section of our society. Such a set-up is unsustainable, as events in Malaysia and elsewhere indicate.

The Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Bill now before this house provides the state with a potentially powerful tool to democratise economic activity and wealth ownership in our country. It obliges all state organs, from municipalities right up to national government institutions and parliament, to award tenders in such a way that favours those sections of our population that have been oppressed, discriminated against, shackled hand and foot and deliberately impoverished over several centuries.

This will ensure, in a deliberate and measurable way, that of the more than R50 billion in tenders that emanates from the state every year, a sizeable proportion goes towards those who have been denied opportunity to participate in the economy of this land.

An important characteristic of this preferential procurement policy framework is that it has no element of hand-outs. It seeks to help those who take initiatives to engage in tangible economic activity, particularly in those areas of our country that need development. Thus, in addition to job creation potential, that activity could uplift economically depressed sectors or areas in our country.

Obviously, this Bill enjoys our whole-hearted support. We would however, urge that monitoring mechanisms be strengthened to ensure that the implementation of this Bill remains in our focus all the time.

We should know, quite publicly, year-in and year-out, what percentage of tenders goes where, and whether or not the objectives of the bill are being achieved. This will enable us to assess whether the 90/10 or 80/20 formulae are realistic or not. If the formulae do not work, we should have no hesitation in amending the legislation so that our society could be propelled in the direction of greater equality and therefore deeper democracy.

The monitoring mechanisms will also enable this parliament, in its overseeing function, to assess whether the different state organs are applying the legislation with the necessary diligence, rigour and fairness.

Although the Preferential Procurement Framework Bill is only two pages long, it is a lot weightier that the other three lengthier constitutional bills still to come. Access by the majority of the people to the resources of their country is a crucial element of citizenship, democracy and justice.

CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE ON THE "ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE BILL", 25TH JANUARY 2000.

The vast majority of our people seldom interact with government in any other way except through the many state offices scattered all over the country where public servants, sitting behind desks and counters, from the humble clerk up to senior officials, take thousands of administrative actions every day.

Some of these decisions have profound implications on the lives of people. Unless you are well informed or well connected or well resourced, you simply have to live with the decisions the people behind desks make, the actions they purport to take under one law or another.

Because of the hostile and alienating nature of government towards the majority Blacks in this country in the past, most of our people are simply terrified of people sitting behind desks and counters. It would not come easy for most to demand explanations and fair administrative actions.

The Administrative Justice Bill will change the relationship between the public on the one hand and people sitting behind desks on the other, from one of power and submission, to another of service with justice and fairness.

But because isiqhelo siyayoyisa ingqondo, it will take some time for both the people behind counters and the general population to embrace the new relationship as advocated for by this Bill. Precisely because public servants have always known the old way of interacting with the public, it might be necessary to educate them on the new way of operating lest most of them become paralysed by the fear that every administrative action they take could be challenged in the new era that appears to turn our country into a lawyer's paradise.

Such a situation could lead to a poor delivery of services by timid public servants who are always looking over their shoulder for a lawyer with a briefcase.

INPUT IN THE DEBATE ON THE "PROMOTION OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION BILL", NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, 25TH JANUARY 2000.

Congratulations and deep appreciation go to members of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Open Democracy Bill for sterling work they did, sifting through piles of submissions from the public, sitting long hours, sometimes into the night in order to prepare this complicated piece of legislation.

This Bill marks yet another deepening of democracy in our country. A people who are ignorant of the process of government cannot intelligently participate in those processes and it is almost impossible to exercise one's rights as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights unless government is open, transparent and information contained in its institutions is freely accessible to the citizens.

Considering the oppressive and secretive past we come from, what these two Bills propose to do is breathtaking and indeed revolutionary. The need for an aggressive public information campaign to alert the people of the arrival of the new era is obvious.

The state, throughout history has been notorious for its tendency to oppress and abuse its citizens and generally run roughshod over their rights and concerns. There is therefore always a struggle on the part of civil society to protect citizens against their own state.

In our case, the Constitution, but in particular the Bill of Rights, the Human Rights Commission and the other specialised but equally independent institutions, are meant to protect persons against the all powerful state and its dangerous tendencies. Thus our human rights credentials, at least theoretically, look impeccable.

That is why the granting to the state of the same rights as individuals to request information held by private bodies is so unfortunate. The pity is that the state is not powerless to obtain any information it requires in order to fulfil its obligations to the citizens. Even now as we speak the state does have enough powers and machinery to obtain any information it might need to protect public interests.

The provision is an unnecessary and ugly pimple on an otherwise beautiful and exciting piece of legislation. The state in our country today is benign, perhaps even benevolent. But it might not always be like that. It is therefore unwise to legislate with a benign government in mind. We should legislate for all seasons.

This provision giving the state the same rights to obtain information held by private bodies is not likely to harm anybody as it stands. It is the simple notion of giving the state this right that sits uncomfortably in one's mind.

Maladministration, abuse of public property and corruption are a worrying problem in our country.

The measures proposed in this bill to protect whistle blowers will add another dimension to the armoury needed to fight this scourge. We hope those who are inclined to corruption will take note of the dangers they face and desist.

AZAPO supports this Bill.

CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE ON "THE PROMOTION OF EQUALITY AND PREVENTION OF UNFAIR DISCRIMINATION BILL", 26TH JANUARY 2000.

In a society like ours, where equality, human dignity and democratic order are enshrined in the constitution, but still a society where in practice inequality is widespread and manifest, where discrimination on the basis of race, colour and other grounds is still common place; where people are denied opportunities, promotion and facilities such as toilets, hostel accommodation in schools; where racially motivated violence still occurs, it is indeed necessary to have this type of legislation.

It is essential that people have recourse to the law if their constitutionally guaranteed rights and human dignity are attacked. The Promotion of Equality And Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Bill is comprehensive in its provisions, but it should be declared that it is not the intention of this parliament to create a regimented society where every twitch in human interaction is regulated by a web of laws.

It is also not the intention to make people love one another and to legislate against attitudes. This legislation is meant to fight those situations where attitudes and hatred translate into unfair discrimination against people on the basis of specified prohibited grounds, and results in certain disadvantages and suffering on the part of the victims of such unfair discrimination.

It is conceivable that a lot of cases of unfair discrimination would be difficult to prove in a court of law. Those who discriminate against others might often manufacture defences that would be difficult to counter. But that cannot detract from the seriousness of this parliament to outlaw unfair discrimination in our country.

Perhaps the state and our society in general, should put greater emphasis on chapter 5 of this bill, which seeks to promote equality. We might reap richer rewards by teaching than by punishing. An inculcation of the values of tolerance, mutual understanding, respect, and broadmindedness among our people should give us a better society than one that lives with a series of court cases.

RESPONSE TO THE “STATE OF THE NATION” ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT T. MBEKI, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, 01/02/2000

Just the other day in this house, a wheel chair bound colleague described to all of us in graphic detail, the obstacles, difficulties and frustrations he faces around parliament. While most of us hurry around this place with ease, people with different forms of disability struggle to do even the most mundane of things.

We might think we understand when they explain their problems to us, but we don't really understand. Those of us with beard have read and women have described the excruciating pain that accompanies childbirth, but only the women who have given birth know what it is like. The rest of us can only think we understand.

The Black experience in this country has been one of living at the receiving end of naked and unbridled racism. In its institutionalised form it condemned us to the margins of society in all spheres of life such as religion, education, health care, housing, land occupation, etc. At the social level it entailed the kinds of daily insults, beatings and even murders for no other reason other than that we are Black.

The kind of unprovoked insults that were quoted by the President on this podium last Friday, constitute daily experiences of many Black people on farms, in the army and police services, in factories and on the roads. Those who are not Black cannot even begin to understand what it is like to live under such circumstances all your life.

It is indeed proper and fitting that the highest office in the land, that of President, should engage in active programmes to eradicate racism in our country. The proposed conference against racism should be seen in that light. We hope it will be inclusive without being amorphous and ridiculous.

But that is the easy part. The more difficult and arduous task is to attend to the dialectic between poverty and racism. The fact that in our country the poor are equated with Blackness and comfort with whiteness, feed and reinforce racist attitudes.

Doesn't the government, in its attempts to uplift the poor unwittingly perpetuate the machinations of racist settler-colonial rule? Doesn't the fact that certain types of houses are built for Blacks only in certain areas reinforce and entrench perceptions that there are things that are for Blacks; that once you have such a settlement, the school or clinic you provide is for Blacks, even if there is no law that says so; and that when you provide water, electricity, telephones, etc in such an area, you are providing them for Blacks.

Are we perhaps destined to follow the path of our neighbours, where Katatura in Windhoek, Chitungwiza, Mbare and Mufakose in Harare were African under colonialism but continue to be African ten or twenty years after liberation? Several decades down the line, are Khayelitsha, Umlazi, Soweto, Cofimvaba, Nzhelele or Moletjie going to be African?

If so, what will this mean to our quest to build an integrated and anti-racist society? Are we content with the present one way street social integration, where the more affluent Blacks stay anywhere, but there is no movement in the opposite direction?

Also are we condemned to travel down this road of development on which we are at the moment? If so, is it a highway without off-ramps? Can't we branch off? Can't we do things differently?

Do some of these questions keep the President awake at night, at least once in a blue moon? Do Government ministers integrate aspects of these questions in their plans and activities?

Some of us were encouraged by the announcement that plans exist to embark on an integrated rural development strategy. We hope it will in time evolve into a full ministry, quite separate from agriculture and land affairs, because the people in the rural areas have been the poorer cousins of their urban counterparts for a long time.

Lack of development and facilities has seen many rural people trekking to the cities with hopes of a better life only to end up in the squalor of plastic mikhukhu or some derelict and uninhabitable building in an inner city. There is a perception among many that despite the provisions in the constitution, the present government has very little respect for traditional leadership and that the government behaves in a manner that seeks to weaken that leadership.

The tensions around the local government demarcation process only serves to strengthen that perception and suspicion. One hopes that the

assurance given by the President about the status of traditional leadership will help. A rural development strategy will not be helped by such tension and suspicions. That development will have to rely on the experiences, culture, structures, energies and enthusiasm of the rural population as a whole.

If there are notions suggesting that the urban elite and intellectuals contemptuous of the rural people and their traditions and that these urban elites are trying to impose development and modernity on them, then those notions must be killed and destroyed. That is necessary to allow the people in rural areas to own the rural development strategy and to power it forward.

Madam Speaker, traditional leadership will not die by decree of declaration. It will be modified and adapted by development and social progress.

NA DEBATE ON THE "TRANSFORMATION AND RECAPITALISATION PROJECT OF THE TAXI INDUSTRY". 16/02/2000

Madam Speaker

There is no doubt that the taxi industry has some problems. It is plagued by endemic violence. A large percentage of taxis are too old and the owners are unable to replace them due to falling revenue.

For the same reason of declining business, those operators who acquire new vehicles have problems with their installments, more often than not leading to repossession.

Taxis contribute significantly towards the carnage on our roads. The proposal to recapitalise the industry and introduce the 18 and 35 seater buses will attend to some of these problems, but by no means all of them.

The old fleet will be removed from our roads. The Public will have a more comfortable and more dignified form of transport. But the carnage on our roads will not be reduced by the mere introduction of new buses. Just as the bigger buses kill people at present, there is no reason why the new ones would not if conditions on the roads remain the same.

The accident rate will only come down if there is a visible, thorough and vigorous enforcement of the law. Corrupt officials who unleash unfit drivers on to our roads by issuing fake driver's licenses must be rooted out.

The same fate must befall corrupt traffic officers who routinely take bribes in order that they turn a blind eye to defective vehicles. The recapitalisation of the taxi industry is certainly a worthwhile proposal. But we hope no one is going to be compelled by law to buy the new 18 and 35 seaters.

We hope that just as the Parisienne and the Valiant (the 6 mabone) were forced out of the market by the imperatives of the business in which they operated, the same route will be followed here. In particular, it must be remembered that many people worked hard to own the taxis they have now. Most are proud of their achievements. They should not be forced into debt if they are not so inclined.

SNAP DEBATE ON “ THE EFFECT OF RECENT FLOODS ON CONSTITUENCIES” - 22/02/2000

Unlike people living in other parts of the world where the occurrence of natural disasters such as monsoon floods, earth–quakes and volcanoes are regular and periodic, we are relatively free of such things. Accordingly, when they do happen, they traumatise us more than they do people who are used to them.

The damage might be the same, but the psychological impact would be different.

Also, because of the rarity of these disasters in our part of the world, the houses we build, where we build them, the kinds of bridges across rivers and streams are by and large not erected with floods in mind.

The damage caused in the northern parts of our country does not only end with collapsed houses, washed away bridges and fields, it has also resulted in water logged fields and drowning crops. Harvests by both commercial and subsistence farmers are going to be drastically reduced.

Whereas physical damage caused to infrastructure is already being estimated at around a R1b, the residual damage to communities due to poor harvests is likely to be much greater. It is therefore important that all components of government, parastatals and other sectors of our country, mobilise themselves to not only repair the damaged infrastructure, but also to attend to the residual effects on a sustained basis, long after the media would have moved away from these areas.

If that is not done, the negative social effects of this calamity will manifest themselves several months down the line.

NA DEBATE ON THE " APPROPRIATION BILL, 1ST READING DEBATE (BUDGET DEBATE)" 09/03/2000

This year's budget certainly left almost everyone smiling. Tax cuts for almost all income groups; lower company taxes on qualifying small businesses and the increase in social spending by R8, 3 Billion were all good news to the citizens.

This is even sweeter coming as it does in an environment where interest rates and inflation levels are not too bad. Only the sinners might feel badly done by the budget, but there is no compassion in sin. The price of sin is pain, and the more it is inflicted, the more we hope that repentance will occur.

But the deeply, deeply worrying question of mass poverty is staring this country in the face. Poverty is the greatest enemy threatening this country and its democracy. It is more formidable now and for the foreseeable future than the threat of external military aggression. What is even more disconcerting is that it is growing despite the good figures and statistics cited by both the budget and the learned economists.

The economy is said to be growing at the rate of 3,4% and yet that same growing economy is shedding jobs at an alarming rate. That means that the proportion of the unemployed and therefore the poor, as a percentage of the population, is growing all the time. That also means that the gap between the rich and the poor is also growing. The desire by most of us to see a more equal society emerging is frustrated by every announcement of downsizing, right-sizing or retrenchment by one or the other employer.

It is indeed sobering to reflect on the fact that upwards of 35% of the workforce that is unemployed, are left completely cold by the tax cuts we are all so excited about. In the face of the growing crisis of unemployment, the allocation of only R1, 2 billion, which is about 0,4% of the whole budget on poverty relief, job creation and infrastructure investment, seems rather small.

The greater the number of the poor and the unemployed, the greater would be the demand on government to spend more and more on social services. Sooner or later, the fiscus is bound to be overwhelmed by such an unsustainable development. No state can spend a bigger and bigger percentage of its budget on social services without suffering unbearable strains.

Obviously, the more people are employed and therefore able to contribute towards their own social needs, the better. Yes, the fundamentals of the economy might be Okay, but unless a solution to the problem of mass poverty is found, we are indeed heading for stormy waters.

EDUCATION BUDGET DEBATE IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, 14th MARCH 2000

Our education is a mess, particularly in Black areas. The vast majority of schools serving Blacks in the townships and villages, right up to institutions of higher learning, have enormous problems. It all has a lot to do with history, oppression, discrimination, poverty and other such things. But it also has something to do with us as a people.

The budget is mainly about plans and money. Before addressing these plans and money, may I steal a moment to talk about us and our relationship to the budget. Discipline on the part of both teachers and learners has gone to the dogs. And of course where there is no respect and order, there can be no credible teaching and learning.

The greatest responsibility for this sad state of affairs must be laid at the feet of the teachers. Young people take the cue and model their behaviour by what adults do or enforce. In Black schools such as Mbilwi, Leshata, Reashoma and others where the teachers are disciplined, the learners are not only disciplined, but they also produce good results in their examinations.

It seems a lot of Black teachers have adopted an attitude to do the minimum and that many have lost confidence in their own ability to teach. How else does one explain the fact that most Black teachers send their own children away to be taught by white teachers elsewhere? They don't believe they can teach their own children?

This is unfortunate because throughout the history of settler-colonialism and racist oppression, Blacks have been portrayed as stupid, inferior and incompetent. Now we ourselves are reinforcing these same negative notions in our own children by telling them that Black schools and Black teachers are not good enough for them. That their own parents, uncles, aunts and neighbours who are qualified teachers are not good enough and that better education can only be imparted by white teachers. This is psychologically damaging to our children.The tragedy of it all is that it is all false.

Some of us were taught by both Black and white teachers at high school. There are different levels of competence among individual teachers, but not among the races. A teacher is a teacher, is a teacher. There is therefore no good reason why Black kids should be carted out of the townships at four in the morning to attend schools elsewhere.

The problems of education are further compounded by the fact that not only teachers, but almost the entire Black petit bourgeois class, which played a crucial leadership role in the Black community during the struggle, has trekked from the ghettoes. Those who still stay there tend to send their children away.

That means that the leadership skills and expertise that used to reside in the communities are now rare. In the specific area of education, those skills would have been valuable in the school governing bodies and the general thrust in improving our schools and the education they provide. This has occurred because the advent of democracy in our country has opened a lot of opportunities for the Black petit bourgeoisie, i.e., most us sitting in this house.

Unionism is a progressive thing. It is an essential element of both democracy and balanced economic activity, ensuring that different and important interest groups in society contend as fairly as possible. However, in education unionism is beginning to have a bad name. There is a notion that teacher unionism protects laziness, incompetence, irresponsibility and poor education.

There is a close relationship between crime and a dysfunctional education system. Teachers do not only provide knowledge and skills; they also give moral guidance and leadership to the youth under them. Schools that lack order, discipline and learning are a breeding ground for anti-social elements that grow up to fill the prisons.

Unless society and the teachers, working together, can restore the dignity, respect and image of a teacher whose presence induces "girls to cross their legs and boys to swallow their cigarettes," to quote Minister Asmal, schools will not be institutions where responsible citizens are nurtured.

We may have all the money in the world to invest in education, if the factors we have just discussed are absent, we will reap nothing. In fact, those schools that have little financial resources but had solved the problems of ill-discipline, lack of performance and disrespect, have tended to produce good results. It follows that a combination of ample resources and human factors we have just alluded to are required to afford us quality education. We hope that the R272 million allocated to professional development in the current budget will go some distance towards addressing some of these problems.

Madam Speaker, there are several worrying short-comings in this budget:

First, the fact that only 1.2% of the education budget will go to infra-structural development suggests that the backlog that was deliberately imposed by apartheid on Black schools in the townships and villages cannot be tackled.

It is now six years after the attainment of democracy but an issue of gross inequality among the races, such as the quality of classrooms we provide to our children, is still with us. It also appears that through normal budgetary processes, this matter can never be adequately addressed.

It might therefore be prudent to consider redress in the provision of educational infrastructure as a special project and create therefore a special fund for it. A campaign could then be launched to raise the necessary funds for this goal.

Secondly, it is sad that the rich still get a disproportionately larger slice of the budget than the poor. In fact, some observers believe that inequality in educational resources between the poor and the rich has grown since the advent of democracy. It is a matter that the Minister of Education and his ministry might want to pay attention to.

Thirdly, early childhood development and adult basic literacy remain the poorer cousins of all the other components of education in our country. They get close to nothing in the budget. Again, this is a problem of the poor.

It is they who could not get an education in their youth and it is their children who cannot afford pre-primary school fees for their toddlers. It is our duty as a society to invest in those two aspects of education so that we create a better and productive population.

Fourthly, the decline in the allocation of funds to tertiary institutions means that Black institutions in particular, which have been inching from one crisis to another, might just accelerate towards doom. It seems a strategy is required to save or convert these institutions into something viable.

Madam Speaker, as the education budget increases in nominal terms but declines in real terms year after year, the problems in education seem to be deepening. We wish the minister and his department wisdom and strength, for education is very close to our hearts. And without a good quality education, we have no future.

DEBATE IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ON "THE WELFARE VOTE", 18TH APRIL 2000

Madam Speaker

The Department of Welfare is the tool of our society to look after the weak in its midst. It is a vehicle through which the old, the infirm, the disabled and the poor are assisted. More often than not the Department of Welfare literally stands between death by starvation for a whole family and life.

It stands between stunted growth of children, kwashiorkor and poor mental growth due to malnutrition on the one hand, and the survival of our children on the other. The Department of Welfare does help many, but it fails many others. In theory, it ought not to fail so many. The constitutional arrangements, the legal arrangements and the financial provisions are not that bad. But there seems to be a lot wrong with some of the people working in the Welfare Department.

It seems there are many people in the department who are sloppy, don't care and lack diligence. One has seen a few letters written by functionaries in the Welfare Department to some old people informing them that their pensions have been stopped and will not be re-installed unless and until they produce their own death certificates. Other letters sent to people who are more than eighty years old asking them to produce letters from doctors indicating if they still qualify for a pension.

What kind of logic is that? One would have thought that you need your pension even more as you get older. The only way to explain these absurd but shocking happenings is to accept that there are people in that department who just pull out the pre-printed letters and mark any box without applying their minds. In the process they are causing a lot of pain, suffering and anguish to our senior citizens.

Madam Speaker, children below seven years belonging to parents whose monthly income is below a certain sum, are entitled to a child support grant from the welfare department.

There is clear legal provision for it. Yet mothers of such children often have a hard time accessing the grants. Many a mother out there throws up her hands in despair because the magistrates' courts that are supposed to help her get maintenance from the father of her children are not doing their job. That's of course not exactly a matter for the welfare department. It is a matter for the justice department.

Except that the failure to get maintenance forces the mother to seek help from the welfare department. And if the welfare department is not responsive, as is often the case, all sorts of possibilities open up - child malnutrition, prostitution, street kids, substance abuse and so on.

Madam Speaker, we would also like to know why, six years after the end of apartheid, Africans are the only people who must queue for pensions at the pay points? If other components of our population get their pensions in a dignified and humane way, why is it that the same methods are not used for the African?

And, considering the fact that the constitution outlaws discrimination on the basis of gender or sex; that the recently passed "Promotion of Equality Act" does the same; that older men are hit very hard by joblessness in this era of high unemployment; also bearing in mind the fact that in general men die younger than women, why is it that women qualify for old age pension at sixty while men have to wait for sixty-five? Is there any wonder there are more women than men on pension queues? When is the discrimination against men on the basis of their sex going to end?

The legal framework and finances to deliver a reasonable social welfare service exists. The problems revolve around lack of diligence, application, compassion, efficiency and care on the part of some officials in the Welfare Department. Perhaps the Welfare Department must do something drastic about those of its officials whose hearts are made of stone.

PUBLIC ENTERPRISES BUDGET DEBATE IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, 14/04/2000

Madam Speaker

Today our parliament is debating the issues relating to our collective wealth; our national assets in the form of state owned enterprises, which are worth billions and billions of rand.

It is to be hoped that several decades down the line, our children and their children, will come to this parliament and find there is still a portfolio committee on public enterprises. That will only be possible if we do not give in to the temptation and the pressure from western countries to sell them all off.

We know that western countries preach to us the virtues of free trade and globalisation while in practice they protect their own farmers and industries against competition from us. To sell all our companies to them, some of them in strategic areas such as the provision of energy and communication, could be extremely unwise. By so doing, we could be weakening ourselves, laying ourselves open to exploitation and manipulation by those who will own our entire economy.

So far, the ministry of public enterprises has done a reasonably good job. Most of the big state-owned enterprises, such as Telkom, Denel, Eskom and Transnet have been turned around from loss to profitability.

After such turn-arounds, and therefore increase in value, foreign partners have been found to inject capital, latest skills, technology and equipment into these enterprises. Telkom and SAA are shining examples of this where foreign partners own a minority stake in the enterprises.

Whereas Telkom, Eskom and Denel are in a reasonable state of health, able to pay dividends to shareholders and handsome taxes to the state, the same cannot be said of Spoornet, which continues to struggle and is expected to register a loss of nearly R400 million in the current financial year. The same state of affairs prevails in other companies in the Transnet family.

But a recovery plan is on the table, which includes the concession of unprofitable rail lines and the bringing on board of Halcrow Rail to help turn the company around and bring it back to profitability. Madam Speaker, this set-up, where state-owned enterprises are made more profitable, partnerships are formed with the private sector, both local and international, but with the state retaining it's major shareholding, is what is desirable and important.

Madam Speaker, we are not saying this state of affairs should be maintained only for reasons of patriotism and national pride, but because state owned enterprises play and can continue to play a crucial role in entrenching democracy and moving us towards a fairer and more just society.

Because of racist policies of the past, Black settlements in both urban and rural areas were denied services such as electricity and telephones. Precisely because Telkom and Eskom are state owned enterprises, government was able to instruct them to embark on an ambitious programme to provide telephones and electricity to a lot of communities who did not have them before. On the whole, these two parastatals are rising to the occasion very well. If Telkom and Eskom were not state owned, they would not be obliged to do the job.

With a more integrated transport system, we might be able to regulate and organise our road, air and rail transport such that they compliment each other more than they do at the moment. In fact, if road transport, in particular, could be arranged in such a way that it feeds into the rail system, commuter transport in both urban and rural areas could be rendered cheaper and safer. The buses and taxis that congest the roads and kill people at such a high rate could be reduced. The rail track that is already there could also be used profitably for the benefit of the nation.

The same argument would prevail with even greater force in the case of the movement of goods. Instead of so many trucks plying our national highways, causing accidents and damaging the roads, we could put greater emphasis on moving more freight by train. In that way, our roads will be safer at the same time as our railways are more profitable.

Madam Speaker, for these same reasons of national interest, some of us welcome the notion floating around of Eskom, Denel and Transnet teaming up to form a new telecommunication parastatal to compete with Telkom.

Alongside our attempts to create a more normal society by increasing Black economic control and ownership, there should be a determination to keep the state in the economy by running successful and profitable state enterprises.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE ON “MINERALS AND ENERGY” - 11/05/2000

Madam Speaker

History has imposed on our generation an enormous obligation to undo the evils of one of the most comprehensive systems of oppression ever seen in the world. Everywhere we turn, every sphere of our lives we care to glance at, the legacy of settler–colonialism stares us in the face.

Our generation is obliged to do all it can to bequeath a country to future generations in which inequality based on race is reduced or eliminated. In order to do this, we need to keep our focus firmly on everything that needs to be transformed and democratised and that focus must never be lost for any one moment.

Future generations will have every justification to spit on our graves if we fail to do our bit, and as a result of our inaction leave them a country where they would still have to make revolution in order to realise economic justice.

Madam Speaker, the liquid fuel industry in our country is one where white domination is almost absolute. The five major oil companies, the sisterhood of BP, Engen, Shell, Caltex and Total reigns supreme.

These sisters have cornered the oil market, fenced it in, barricaded the gates and locked them. It is almost impossible for new comers to enter this multi–billion rand industry. The newly established Black companies that are trying to come in, such as Exel Petroleum and Afric Oil, are struggling to keep the paltry 3% of the market that they have.

The sisterhood absolutely controls sourcing, transportation, storage, refining and distribution of petroleum products in our country. Hence their ubiquitous presence everywhere on our highways, roads and streets. They are synonymous with motoring or filling up. In fact, when you say you're going to fill your car up, you mean one of the sisters is going to fill you up.

This situation was engineered by the oppressive and racist system of the past where Blacks were prohibited by law to participate in the economic activities of the country, except of course at the level of servants or labourers.

This ugly state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue, and just as it was deliberately, systematically and consciously designed by the state, it similarly requires a deliberate and systematic action by the government of the day for its correction. Market forces cannot be trusted to do it.

The department of Minerals and Energy must use all available means and measures to promote black oil companies. Where such means do not exist, they should be created. It is heartening to see some parastatals, such as Transnet and others awarding tenders for the supply of petroleum products to Black oil companies. We hope all other parastatals, government departments and state organs would do the same.

We hope ours is not a discordant voice; that we are in fact singing the same chorus with the Department of minerals and energy and that the gusto of our singing will be matched in time by an equally robust restructuring programme of the oil industry.

We urge the sisterhood of five to secure the future of this industry and of the country by integrating the majority of the people in this land in their companies at the levels of meaningful shareholding, management and other forms of general participation.

Madam Speaker, one of the ways of measuring the standard of living of a people, is by looking at the amount of electricity they consume. Different percentages of our people use electricity for cooking and lighting, but on average, more than fifty percent of households use wood, candle and paraffin for cooking and lighting. And there is no need to guess, it is Black people who have no access to electricity in large numbers.

Eskom is to be commended for the enormous strides they have made in the last few years in availing electricity to larger numbers of our people, especially in rural communities. This availability of electricity simplifies people's lives by freeing them from the burden of gathering the ever–vanishing fire wood, having better lighting of their homes and usage of cheaper and convenient domestic appliances.

That over 1,7 million households were connected to the national electricity grid for the first time in the last five years means the lives of several millions of our people were improved.

In fact, Madam Speaker, Eskom is one of the most valuable assets this country possesses. It does not only provide electricity cheaply and largely reliably to many parts of our country, but it is also working in partnerships with other entities in several African countries to light up our continent. We would be a foolish nation indeed if we would not protect and nurture it into an even bigger giant than what it is at present.

More importantly, Eskom should be encouraged, supported and assisted in whatever way is necessary and possible to provide more of our people with electrical energy.

Madam Speaker, the story of our country cannot be told without mentioning its minerals. We are blessed with all sorts of minerals and yet to the majority of the people that wealth has meant exclusion, exploitation, pain, humiliation and death by rock fall, death by inhalation of poisonous gas or suffocation. The migratory labour system, the qunusa episodes, the mass naked parades of men for so–called medical examination, huge and filthy single sex hostels and starvation wages were all the aspects of minerals' activity that Black people knew.

A minority racial group expropriated all the wealth connected with our rich mineral resources. More than one and half centuries since mining started, this is still more or less the position in our country. Yes, a few small agreements are being reached here and there to extend the benefits of mining to some people from the Black community.

The prominent one is between the Bafokeng of Phokeng and Amplats which guarantees substantial royalties to that community from the mining of platinum on their land.

There are others which are not so impressive signed here and there. But in the general and overall configuration of mineral wealth in our country, these agreements represent a droplet in the ocean.

Once more Madam Speaker, we need to sing one chorus with all the gusto our collective vocal chords can muster. Our song must say that the mining industry must be deracialised in such a way that it benefits all in our country.

In this connection, would it not be better to use entities such as the Lebowa Mineral Trust, to bring more and more of our people into a meaningful relationship with mineral wealth? Instead of dissolving LMT, is it not better to find ways and means of transforming it into such a vehicle, especially if one considers that we don't have many such vehicles around?

Finally Madam Speaker, it was really heartening to see the Minister of Minerals and Energy giving the management, workers and their families so much support during the tragedy that befell Rainbow Minerals mine recently. It was good to see her camping at the mine, sleeping there and giving heroic rescue workers moral support and encouragement.

We however would like to have safer mining in our country so that such tragedies are eliminated.

NA DEBATE ON “THE STOCKHOLM DECLARATION” -23/05/2000

Those of us in this house who are of a darker hue have seen and felt with our own eyes and bodies the sheer brutality and inhumanity of godforsaken ideologies such as racism and anti–Semitism.

We have seen open, naked and hostile discrimination. We have seen whole communities' houses flattened by bulldozers, their live stock stolen or destroyed, the people forcibly loaded on trucks and dumped in the open veld without a modicum of facilities, simply because they are of the wrong colour. Some of us know how it is like to be marched from your bed in the middle of the night by the Gestapo, taken to a police station to be beaten, tortured and if you are lucky, sent to prison.

This simply because you are of the wrong colour. Some of us have seen children being mowed down with automatic guns in Soweto, Mamelodi, Kwa–Zakele, and so on, by big, strong men in uniform, simply because those children are of the wrong colour.

Some of us have seen close friends, great human beings, immensely talented pals such as Steve Biko, Mapetla Mohapi, Mthuli kaShezi and others needlessly murdered and wasted, simply because they are of the wrong colour.

Our understanding therefore, of the plight of the Jews, who were rounded up and murdered all over Europe, simply because they were of the wrong religion, cannot be anything else but deep and intense.

We know that the sheer scale, the heinousness of the concentration camps and the gas chambers go far beyond our imagination. But still we do understand the insanity of the ideologies that give rise to these barbaric acts against other human beings.

Those of us, those societies, countries, races and religions that have experienced murderous persecution from the adherents of the foolish but dangerous ideologies of racism and anti–Semitism, understand why bigotry of any description must not be humoured.

We should ensure that these evils never return to haunt us; that we must build a fair, just, tolerant and open society where inhumanity to others is not allowed. We should quickly correct the legacy of the oppression of the past at the same time that we ensure that we ourselves oppress no one.

NA DEBATE ON “AFRICA UNITY DAY – FORMATION OF THE OAU” 25/05/20000

Madam Speaker

For many centuries now Africans and their continent have been the main victims of every system of social and political oppression. We were the main victims of slavery, colonialism and now of a neo–colonialism. Europeans and all their institutions, including the church, declared an African as something less than human, something without a soul and therefore something deserving of sub–human treatment.

In addition to the economic motive, this is the basis for racism, slavery and colonialism. In the African struggle for emancipation from colonialism and racism, in particular, we asserted the inherent right of all human beings to freedom and dignity.

That right to freedom is equal and independent of whether you are a sophisticated bank owner in New York or a peasant in some remote village somewhere in the forests of the Congo. The formation of the OAU in 1963, by some of the most venerable names on the continent, which include Abdel Nasser, Mwalimu Nyerere and Kwameh Nkrumah, was the collective assertion of this belief in the fundamental right, first of ourselves, and then of all of humanity to be free.

The OAU, in pursuance of this belief, exerted itself in the arduous campaign to liberate every corner and every soul on the continent from colonial and racist oppression. That mission was accomplished.

However, the social and economic advancement of the peoples of Africa remains a huge challenge. In fact, in many instances, the advent of political freedom had heralded a decline in the living standards of many Africans.

That is due to a number of factors, including:

The assumption by many that the design of a new flag, the singing of a new national anthem and the installation of a black ruler marks the end of the struggle.
The economy of the country, including land ownership in certain instances, remained in the hands of others. That attitude has cost Africans dearly.
The psychological and cultural damage visited upon Africans by centuries of slavery, colonialism and racism remains uncorrected. Economic and social developments are a function of psychology and culture.
The accumulation of capital and wealth in the west, some of which at the expense of Africans, is too great an advantage to others

There is a sense in which the instability, the cruel wars and social strife we see in Africa reflect in varying degrees, some of these factors. We must now mobilise to overcome these factors and improve the lives and dignity of all our people on this continent.

SNAP DEBATE IN THE NA ON THE “TAXI/BUS VIOLENCE IN THE WESTERN CAPE” 07/06/2000

Madam Speaker

In any normal democratic society, disputes of one description or another will arise from time to time among different interest groups. There is therefore nothing fundamentally wrong with the ten week old dispute between Golden Arrow Bus Company on the one hand and the taxi industry, as represented by Cata and Codeta, on the other.

What is wrong is the manner in which the dispute is being handled. Why are our people treated with so much cruelty and disrespect? Why is the situation allowed to continue where people are intimidated and forced to walk long distances in order to find transport they can afford?

We all saw on TV innocent street vendors being assaulted in the city by people marching to protest against some aspects of this dispute. We have not heard of any arrest for these assaults.

Over the last ten weeks two bus drivers and a taxi driver have been killed and several other people injured. We have only heard of arrests associated with the latest incident where two bus drivers were injured. Where are the other arrests?

If this democracy is to work and our people are to regain their dignity and humanity, we should all work towards the stamping out of impunity. Anyone intimidating, harassing, injuring or killing others, must know that there will be consequences.

Then, and only then, will our democracy work properly. Then, different social groups will contend from time to time over this or the other issue and find a peaceful solution.

Then, we won't have every dispute degenerating into mayhem, burnings and smashings of things. Then, not every dispute about fares, routes, permits and so on would result in murder, in the creation of widows and orphans.

We have died enough. We don't have to die anymore over some stupid bus and taxi fares and their routes. Argue, protest, yes. Die, no.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE ON “VOTE #1: THE PRESIDENCY” - 13/06/2000

Madam Speaker

Compared to the ministries that received tens of billions of rand, the R83 million allocated to the Presidency, which is the highest office in the land, is peanuts.

Yet, whatever is right or wrong about the ministries, which affect some aspect of our lives one way or the other, we are justified to cast our eyes beyond the ministries, to fix our gaze at the Presidency. Precisely because the Presidency is the quintessence of government, we are justified to apportion blame or heap praise at the Presidency.

Madam Speaker, if there is any class that has benefited most from the advent of democracy in our country since 1994, it is the Black petit bourgeoisie. That class consists of most of us sitting in this house and in the provincial parliaments, most administrators in the civil service, the lawyers, doctors, teachers, nurses, journalists and so on. Democracy has freed this class from the constraints imposed on it by apartheid, allowing the Black petit bourgeoisie to play its classical role.

It is our class that is the main beneficiary of affirmative action. Promotions that happened in the civil service, in the parastatals, media houses and other private companies has benefited mainly this class. Black economic empowerment is also sweet music to this class.

The Black petit bourgeoisie has seen the greatest upward social movement in recent years. It has trekked in large numbers from the townships and villages to more affluent residential areas.

If patients at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital and other such hospitals lie on the floor under their own blankets for lack of beds, the Black petit bourgeoisie, with its medical aid, can lie in the private hospitals.

If schools in the villages and townships suffer from poor teaching, lack of books and stationery, the children of the Black petit bourgeoisie would be better off in former model C and private schools.

If millions of our people live in mikhukhu and the small RDP houses, the Black petit bourgeoisie would be living in better houses elsewhere. Of course all of us have benefited in some ways from the freer political environment that now exists in our country.

There are more Black people with access to electricity, clean water and telephones today than there were under white oppressive rule. But there are also areas, such as employment and levels of poverty, that have deteriorated in recent years.

The challenge that faces all of us, but especially the Black petit bourgeoisie which has a big hand in public life, and the ministries, is how do we accelerate the process that allows everybody to benefit from our democracy. In grappling with that challenge, we naturally look up to the Presidency for a lead.

Obviously, we don't expect the Presidency to determine the class structure of our society or to re–cast the behaviour of those classes. But because we do expect the President to grey faster than all of us, we do expect him to lead the way in the tackling of this serious issue facing our young democracy.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE ON “JUNE 16”, 14/06/2000

The duration of tyranny is as long as the endurance of the oppressed. When the oppressed stand up and say no more, it is the beginning of the end of the oppressor.

Although we have been under the heel of racist white settler-colonialism for 342 years, we never, as a people, gave up. June 16, 1976 is a manifestation of that heroic spirit of our people.

The events of June 16, 1976 gave our struggle for liberation a mighty push forward. Although more than 600 of us were killed by the regime, Steve Biko murdered in prison, thousands of young people, in particular, imprisoned; 17 Black Consciousness organisations banned and lots of property destroyed, the impetus given to the struggle could not be reversed.

As a result of those events, the political consciousness of our people reached unprecedented levels, the ranks of the liberation organisations, both inside and outside the country, were swelled by patriots eager to give their all.

As we prepare to commemorate this important day in the history of our country, some of us are concerned about the amount of money we are spending on it.

We are not a rich country and our needs are enormous.

In a country where millions live in mikhukhu; where school children sit on the cement floor for lack of desks and others learn under trees; where the minister of education is considering discontinuing the free supply of stationery and textbooks for lack of money; where patients in public hospitals sleep on the floor with their own blankets because of lack of linen and beds in those hospitals, it seems inappropriate to spend R20m on just one commemoration.

Many of us know that we have in the past commemorated these important days without spending too much money. Why do we spend so much money? Do we fear that if there is no promise of food and drink and the gyrations of the likes of Boom Shaka the people might not come?

What about the fact that some of us in this house have, rightly so, been criticising students on campuses for spending too much money on fresher's balls when their families and the institutions they are at are so poor? Won't they say they are taking a cue from the state? Won't they tap into the wisdom of Patrick Mphephu of the Venda Bantustan fame and say: “If the state did it, why can't we did it?”

May the memory of our gallant 1976 patriots direct all of us to work harder for our country.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE ON “NATIONAL LAND TRANSPORT TRANSITIONAL BILL” - 19/06/2000

Madam Speaker

Individuals in countries much richer than ours do not rely on private vehicles for commuting as much as we do in this country.

Part of the problem with us is that our public transport system is uncoordinated, chaotic and often dangerous. So, those who can afford, do avoid public transport.

The rail, bus and taxi modes of land transport are not harmonised, co-ordinated and regulated in such a way that they efficiently and comfortably feed into each other.

Public transport is unsafe because many buses and taxis are not roadworthy. They often drive recklessly or too fast, they are often visited by shootings of both drivers and passengers and commuters on trains are often terrorised by thugs.

To the extent that the “National Land Transport Transitional Bill” seeks to attend to these problems and help to build a better, efficient, safer and affordable public transport system, it is welcome indeed.

There will be many and formidable challenges in the process of building such a desirable public transport system. One of the most important is law enforcement in our country.

The violation of the law and regulations by role players in the transport sector is breathtaking, and it happens with impunity. Look at what is happening in Cape Town. People are murdered, property destroyed and thousands of people intimidated and inconvenienced, but very little is happening to protect life and limb.

Beyond that, many of us have practical knowledge of how taxis in particular, are a law unto themselves on the roads. It seems the solution to every problem and dispute in the sector is resolved with a gun or a threat of it.

There seems to be a general understanding in our country that if you own or drive a taxi or a bus, or you own some kind of a business, you are entitled to a gun. Can't we change that? Some of these issues should not be placed on the plate of the ministry of transport. They belong elsewhere. But they do have a huge impact on the success or otherwise of the Bill being debated here today.

If the provisions of this bill are generally disregarded or violated by role players, then the country will not succeed in establishing a good, co-ordinated, safe, efficient and comfortable public transport system.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE ON “SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL FOR EDUCATORS BILL,” 20/06/2000,

Madam Speaker

The South African Council for Educators is a body meant to protect the image of the profession and enhance its status in society. SACE, as re-established through this Bill, will give educators a tool to regulate themselves and protect the interests of their members by

i. registering all educators who satisfy conditions as determined by SACE. This will ensure that educators meet at least a minimum set of criteria before they could be active in the profession;

ii. determining ethical and professional standards to be observed by all educators;

iii. instituting disciplinary hearings against those in their register who violate their code of ethical and professional conduct and

iv running programmes and projects to develop and improve professionalism among educators.

During the public hearings, some of the role players raised concerns about the seeming formidable powers of the Minister of Education in that he/she appoints the Chairperson of SACE and approves the budget of the SACE every year.

These concerns were shared by some of us in the portfolio committee. However, deliberations that followed clarified the legal, constitutional and other imperatives that demand that the legislation be framed in this fashion.

In any case, it seems all the other similar statutory bodies for other professions operate on more or less the same lines. At this point in time, when education is experiencing so many problems and educators having to face many of them, SACE might be a help. AZAPO supports the Bill.

TWO MINUTE INPUT BY MOSIBUDI MANGENA IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE ON STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF EDUCATION “LITERACY” 08/09/1999

Among other things, oppression of the majority of the people in this country took the form of the denial of proper and adequate educational opportunities for Blacks. That's why inequality among the different racial groups in our society is mirrored in and accentuated by high levels of illiteracy.

That's why Blacks constitute the vast majority of the 40% or so of our people who are functionally illiterate. Therefore, if we are to build a more equal and just society, we must improve literacy levels in our population.

Trainability of the work force, which is vital for improvement in employability and productivity of labour, is linked in a very direct way with levels of literacy.

Indeed these and other considerations call for a vigorous and ambitious literacy and numeracy campaign spearheaded by the Ministry of Education.

The programme could seek to harness the resources, energies and expertise of the private sector, the NGO's and the education sector itself. Teachers and students at tertiary institutions could be drawn into the programme. In fact, involvement in literacy work could become an element of community service for all students at tertiary institutions.

Illiteracy could be wiped out within fifty kilometers of each university, technikon or college in about five years after the launch of the campaign. Those of us who got involved in literacy work in our university student days, found it an extremely rewarding exercise. It connected us in a very direct way with our communities, and made us feel useful at the same time as it sensitized us to the problems of others in our society.

There is no reason why young people at university, technikon or college today would not feel the same. Let's try it!

National Assembly Debate on the “Western Cape Bombings”, 12 September 2000

Madam Speaker

These bombs exploding in Cape Town are as deadly as they are mysterious. Why don't the perpetrators of these deeds tell society what its sins are which are punishable by bombing? What are the social or political goals of these bombers?

If they are opposed to capitalism or abortion or homosexuality or drugs, as some speculators believe, why don't they say so? In the absence of any explanation from the bombers, are we not entitled to conclude that they are just bloodthirsty and sadistic people who enjoy seeing people bleed and die?

What is so peculiar about Cape Town? Are societal imperfections the bombers are irritated about only in Cape Town? Will the bombing of the community in Cape Town solve whatever sins our country is guilty of?

With the constitutional and political environment as open as it is, where all views and ideas may contend freely, why don't the bombers use this space to propagate their views? Is it possible that we are seeing here a fringe international fanatical group that is playing out its beliefs in our country?

Madam Speaker, the questions are many. Another important question we need to ask is: Where are the arrests? The ministers in the security-related cluster need to answer that.

It is indeed soothing to see the ministers angrily condemning the bombings, but society is looking up to them to put the perpetrators of wrong doing behind bars.

Are the skills of the intelligence and police people perhaps wanting? Are the bombers too clever for the entire state security apparatus in this country? Are there perhaps other problems?

The bombing mayhem has gone on for a long time now. We should by now be having some arrests.

National Assembly Debate on “Education Laws Amendment Bill,” 12 September 2000

Madam Speaker

Our education is fraught with many and daunting problems and difficulties, some of which are a reflection of the state of our society as a whole. This Bill seeks to amend several Education Acts in order to address some of the problems manifest in education.

Every now and then we hear of brutal killings on school premises involving both teachers and learners. Allegations of love affairs between teachers and learners or with other elements are sometimes proffered as reasons for these murders.

One of the amendments empowers the Minister of Education to make regulations to improve safety in schools. That is definitely desirable. Other measures contemplated address disciplinary issues against teachers who are accused of serious misconduct such as corruption, fraud, bribery, sexual assault against learners or having sexual liaisons with learners.

It's a bit of a shame that we have to be debating issues like these in connection with a profession as noble as the teaching one. But the necessity of these measures is an admission by all of us that there is something rotten in education.

We support these measures with a plea that they be implemented. In conversations with some teachers, they complain that instead of the ministry of education taking action against misbehaving individual teachers, nothing is done and the public statements are made ascribing these misdeeds to all teachers.

As we speak, there are enough laws and regulations to handle misbehaving teachers. We hope the ministry will use these tools to restore the stature, dignity and integrity of the teaching profession.

AZAPO will support the Bill.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE ON “TRANSNET PENSION FUND AMENDMENT BILL” - 19/09/2000

Madam Speaker

Most subsidiaries in the Transnet group of companies have been badly managed for years. As a result, they have been losing business and money by the million for a long time and therefore a drain on the fiscus.

There is a new breed of men and women at Transnet who are full of beans, ideas and enthusiasm. They are trying hard to turn these companies into good public businesses that make profit and therefore become a positive asset to the nation.

A few successes have been realised, allowing the enterprises concerned to form partnerships with the private sector. Of course AZAPO continues to urge that in these partnerships formed with the private sector, the state will remain with a controlling share in all the important companies in Transnet.

A major headache in these efforts to turn Transnet around has been the pension fund which gobbles up hundreds of millions of rand of the company's funds each year. The rather large number of pensioners and the structure of the pension fund have ensured that the fund becomes unsustainable.

The Bill before this house is an attempt to address this issue. Whilst ensuring that Transnet continues to service its pensioners, it also reconfigurates the pension fund in such a way that it becomes less onerous to Transnet. It also gives the pensioners the flexibility to decide how their pensions may be invested.

AZAPO supports the Bill.

N/A DEBATE ON “RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE CONFERENCE ON RACISM,” 28/09/2000

Madam Speaker

There is no doubt that the National Conference on Racism held in Sandton recently was a historic and important event in our country, and perhaps the world.

The Conference focussed national attention on the scourge of racism that affects millions of our people everyday on the farms, in private homes, in banks, insurance companies, supermarkets, in the army, the police service, everywhere. Occasionally it erupts into something that hits the headlines like when a man is painted silver or another one is tied behind a bakkie and dragged for several kilometres until he is dead and pieces of his flesh are collected like samples of mud on the tar road.

Racism is an irrational disease that destroys human relations and is capable of shaking the very foundations of a society or country. We have an experience in this country of the consequences of racial discrimination and racist practices.

Madam Speaker, the programme of action adopted by the Conference, which includes the declaration of a decade of national mobilisation against racism, is most welcome. Racism will not just go away of its own accord. It needs to be confronted and rooted out of the fabric of our society.

The incessant complaints of racism emanating from Blacks and the fact that they are at the receiving end of racist practices everywhere, is a measure of the weakness of the Blacks. Only the weak can complain of being discriminated against or being oppressed. Women complain of being oppressed socially and economically because they are in a weak position at this point in time.

Blacks do not complain of discrimination in soccer or politics because they are on an equal footing with everybody. We are ill–treated, beaten up and evicted from farms because we own very little land.

We complain of racist discrimination in the banking, insurance, commerce and industry because our ownership stake in these sectors is almost zero.

We complain about being discriminated against in rugby, cricket and other such sport codes because other people are in a more powerful position in these areas.

We are put in this position of weakness by the history of colonisation, discrimination and oppression spanning several centuries.

Be that as it may Madam Speaker, Blacks must guard against being a nation of moaners. We should guard against entrenching a victim mentality in our general psyche. Yes, we should complain against and talk about racism when and wherever we encounter it. But above all, instances of racist discrimination against us should galvanise us into action.

That action must be geared at raising our economic and social status. Journalist Mathatha Tsedu said the other day on television that beggars and givers can never be equals. We should give content to the action programme against racism by:

(a) accelerating land reform and bringing about equity and justice in that area as quickly as possible

(b) increasing our ownership stake in the economy of our country

(c) improving the social position of our people as quickly as possible in the areas of education, health, housing and so on.

In this country, discrimination against Blacks will continue as long as Blacks allow it to happen. Once we say no, and back it up with economic advancement, it will stop. We will then be on the road to building a beautiful and open society in which all can live in peace and happiness.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEBATE ON “HIGHER EDUCATION AMENDMENT BILL,” 03 October 2000

Madam Speaker

The Higher Education Amendment Bill seeks to solve some problems manifest in the area of tertiary education and by so doing protect both students and the integrity of this level of education in our country.

One such problem is the poor management of resources by some universities and technikons as well as the undertaking of expensive projects that are beyond the financial capacities of the institutions concerned. As a result, some institutions find themselves in huge debts that have a debilitating effect on their proper and efficient functioning.

The Bill proposes restricting the ability of institutions to put themselves in financial trouble. While some of us wholeheartedly agree that the Ministry of Education must intervene, and we have been assured that the Ministry has sufficient capacity to handle applications by institutions for expenditure beyond a stipulated amount, we worry that we might be creating bigger bureaucratic hurdles in the Ministry of Education which would hamper the smooth and efficient running of the healthy institutions.

We fear we might be solving a problem by creating another.

The other problem is the proliferation of private institutions of higher learning, both local and foreign, in our country. Some are of dubious character, quality, origin and intention. Many parents and students have fallen victim to some of these universities or colleges.

This Bill seeks to strengthen the registration process of these private institutions and to impose penalties for those who provide tertiary training without registration. This will protect our people against some of these institutions of questionable credentials at the same time as it protects those institutions that provide quality education. AZAPO supports the Bill.

JOINT SITTINGS OF PARLIAMENT TO HONOUR THE PEACE TIME ROLE OF THE SANDF, 05/10/2000

Madam Speaker

A few years ago, the defence force of this country was a rogue and villain whose appearance anywhere in Southern Africa meant death and destruction. It was an enemy of the majority of the people in its own country and our neighbours. It was a defence force that was feared and hated by most of us.

It is therefore remarkable to see our defence force today using their wonderful skills, not to kill, main and destroy property, but to save lives in emergencies. It was wonderful and heart warming to see them risking their own lives, day in and day out, plucking people from tree – tops and roof – tops in flood – stricken Mozambique recently and taking them to safety.

Sitting in our homes and watching on television, we marvelled at the skills, courage, endurance and above all, the humanity of the men and women in the SANDF. Our hearts were filled with nothing else but pride.

The rescues in Mozambique during the floods were the more dramatic and eye – catching peacetime operations of the SANDF. Their operations in our own country during the same floods in the Northern and Mpumalanga provinces were less dramatic but no less heroic and noble.

This occasion in this House, arranged to allow our national parliament to honour the peacetime role of our defence force, to recognise in a formal way their gallant deeds, is both fitting and proper.

We are certain that what is happening here today, what is said here today, will find a resounding echo in the minds and hearts of all in our country and beyond our borders.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SNAP DEBATE ON HIV/AIDS, 10 OCTOBER 2000

Madam Speaker

At some point in my early twenties when I was full of ideas and thought I knew everything, I said people should not be so convinced about the existence of God since no one has seen Him and nobody can prove His existence.

In her shock, dismay and exasperation, my God – fearing mother said, “ Son, you also can't prove that God does not exist.” After saying a lot more things she said as a parting shot: “ Don't you think it would be a devastating tragedy if you were to persist with your attitude only to discover after your death that God actually exists.”

There is a sense in which this debate reminds one of that brief encounter. None of us in this House is a practising scientist who can go into the laboratory and prove or disprove any of the assertions we are making. All we are doing is to politicise a deadly medical condition which is devastating millions of our people.

What practising scientists, both orthodox and dissident, are agreed upon is that there is something called HIV and another something called AIDS. What they are arguing about is whether HIV leads to AIDS.

Whatever the case mighty be, we know that it is very clever indeed to protect ourselves against HIV. And what is cool about it is that as we do that, we also protect ourselves against other sexually transmitted diseases and prevent unplanned pregnancies.

Our congratulations go to the Medical Research Council and their scientists who developed a candidate vaccine against HIV and those who worked on the “ Pretoria Pasteurisation” project meant to reduce mother – to – child HIV transmission through breastfeeding. We hope the vaccine succeeds and that their ground – breaking work will lead to the defeat of the HIV /AIDS.

In the meantime, let all of us protect ourselves against HIV.

NA DEBATE ON THE “PAN AFRICAN PARLIAMENT” - 30/10/2000

Madam Speaker

There is no doubt that the draft protocol relating to the establishment of the Pan African Parliament, as it stands, raises some serious constitutional, legal, political and practical problems for this country and others on the continent.

A natural and instinctive tendency would be to hold our own constitutional and legal regime supreme and push away at anything that seeks to alter or contaminate that regime. In the defence of our constitution and laws, we would demand that the protocol and the Pan African Parliament itself be shaped in such a way that they comply with our constitution and laws emanating from it.

Madam Speaker, our continent, fragmented as it is into small states, for the most part with small populations, settled with very low levels of infrastructural, economic and social development, cannot be a meaningful player in world political and economic affairs.

Therefore, the establishment of the Pan African Parliament, as an important element of the economic integration of Africa, is a crucial and epoch–making development for our continent.

If approached with commitment and dedication by most member countries, the Pan African Parliament could contribute a lot towards the upliftment and improvement of the lives of people on our continent. We should therefore be prepared, where appropriate, to subjugate some aspects of our constitution and laws to the AU and PAP in order to advance continental unity.

For now, it is appropriate that the PAP should have only deliberative functions and that its members be elected by national parliaments of member countries. But we should be prepared to give it more and more powers and functions as time goes on. It must not be a rushed job. It must be a step by step process.

NA DEBATE ON “VIOLENCE IN PALESTINE AND PROSPECTS OF THE FUTURE PEACE PROCESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST REGION”, 02/11/2000,

Madam Speaker

Television footage of well armed Israeli soldiers shooting at civilians and processions of grieving Palestinians carrying bodies of their babies and teenagers to the graveyards, are just replays of our own bitter history. We see in that footage our own children being killed in Soweto, Langa, Kwa–Mashu and elsewhere by police and soldiers simply because they are a wrong colour.

Just the other day this house debated a noble motion remembering and condemning atrocities committed against the Jewish people by the Nazis. What we see now is a classical case of victims of persecution turning into villains.

The state of Israel stands condemned before the whole world of using excessive, disproportionate and brutal force to deal with unrest by people of another religion. Stone throwing youths do not deserve a bullet through the head.

Little babies do not have to die by the bullet simply because their older brothers are throwing stones. We have seen Israeli security forces dealing with protests by Jews in a much more humane manner. Why can't they employ those same methods to control angry Palestinian youth?

Madam Speaker, as things stand at the moment, Jews and Palestinians are condemned to live together in one territory. For decades they have argued and fought one another, killed one another and scattered one another into exile. The peace process that the two sides embarked upon in order to end this circle of violence and death now seems terminally ill.

Israel must stop the brutal killings of unarmed Palestinians and the two sides must work out a lasting mode of co–existence in that territory that is just, equitable, peaceful and lasting.

Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO)

P.O. Box 4230 Johannesburg 2000.

7^th Floor, Balmoral House,

100 President Street,

Johannesburg

2000

Tel.: +27 (11) 336 1874

+27 (11) 336 3551

Fax.: +27 (11) 333 6681

Email: azapo@sn.apc.org;

Website: http://www.azapo.org.za/