Response to the State of the Nation Address
2004-05-26. It seems that the dust is finally starting to settle after our third national elections as a free country. It was an election in which many lofty promises were made by different political parties in the hope of winning votes.
As the ANC said at the time though, your party, Mr President, will be
the one with the responsibility of actually implementing those
promises. The ANC won this election under the promise of a people's
contract to create work and fight poverty. We in the Independent
Democrats are determined to ensure that you don't default on the letter
and the spirit of this contract.
The concept of a people's contract speaks to the very heart of our new democracy. It is a sad fact that the lack of democracy in the apartheid years led to the severe underdevelopment of the majority of our people. The challenge we are all faced with now is to turn the power of democracy into a force for development.
The Independent Democrats, as our name states, are completely committed to the principles and practice of true democracy in South Africa. People need to be able to direct and guide government on the most appropriate form of development needed for their circumstances. It is a worrying sign that a recent survey found that only one in three South Africans feel that the will of the people are being reflected in government's policies. Too often these voices are not heard and projects and plans are sometimes implemented with disastrous effects.
What we need is more consultation and less consultants. According to government's own ten year review, almost a quarter of government's procurement budget is spent on consultants. We should be using that money to build capacity within government departments so that they can interact with communities themselves and find the right long term solutions. Government must also put in place mechanisms to find out whether lack of capacity is being used an excuse for inefficiency. Mr President, if you want your bold plans to succeed you will need to crack the whip and ensure that Ministers and civil servants implement your programme according to the timeline spelt out by you. You will be very busy, Mr President, implementing this plan so I don't want you to worry about the noise from this small boy over here. I will take care of him!
One of the greatest dangers our new democracy faces is that of poverty. If we are unable to turn the tide of the ever increasing levels of poverty in South Africa, many of the hard fought victories for freedom and democracy would have been for naught.
Poverty is a threat to the very existence of an individual and society at large. Poverty attacks a person's dignity and self worth, and eats away at a person's self esteem. It creates moral dilemmas between choosing a life of crime and basic survival.
The government has embarked on some initiatives to stem the rising levels of poverty such as social grants and public works programs. The only real long term solution though, is tackling the unacceptably high unemployment rate in South Africa. The rallying cry against poverty must be jobs, jobs and jobs!
Once again you have promised the country millions of jobs. I ask you Mr President, though, what has suddenly changed. We have heard these promises before but the jobs have not been forthcoming.
ID believes that the only sustainable way of creating large numbers of jobs is by giving priority and directing resources to small and medium sized businesses. Government and large businesses cannot do this job alone and in fact, they are the ones that are currently shedding jobs.
One practical way of doing this is through awarding the R100 million infrastructure contracts to Small and Medium size businesses. They should be the contractors who are responsible for overcoming the huge backlog that exists in maintaining our needed infrastructure. By awarding it to these contractors, government will be helping them to overcome the hurdle of the capital they need to turn their businesses into viable enterprises.
South Africa also needs to make a link between our education system and the kind of skills that are required for our economy to prosper.
The Independent Democrats also believe that as a nation we need to critically debate important and controversial issues. We cannot shy away from these debates as our new democracy was built through us negotiating and finding each other on divisive issues. On an economic level we should be critically debating amongst all key sectors the precise role of government's intervention in the economy. This will avoid the situation where different sectors simply determine this role for government.
Like you Mr President, the ID also does not want to see children being taught in conditions where they are exposed to the elements. We would go further though and claim that every child in South Africa deserves the quality education guaranteed to them under the constitution. Like our Access to Education Initiative, ID will be presenting a number of practical solutions over this coming year to show how this can be achieved before the opening of schools next year.
The ID supports the government's Anti-Retroviral Roll-out programme, but we are concerned that the current rate of implementation will not achieve government's target of 1,4 million people by 2008. To achieve this target we must provide roughly 300 000 ARV's per annum and not the current 53 000. This virus is outmanoeuvring us a nation and we need to play this virus as a team like we did so successfully for the 2010 bid.
Mr President, do you really think there is a need to create a Special Joint Task Team to apprehend the top 200 criminals in South Africa. In what way will this task team differ from the Scorpions and does this then mean that the Scorpions have been unable to fulfil this task.
Mr President, we in the ID share your vision that you spelt out to the country in your State of the Nation address. It is a bold plan in which all of us will have to play our part in ensuring that it gets implemented according to the timetable laid out by you. ID would like to know where this plan came from though, and whether the proposals contained within it are in addition to what has already been achieved. ID will be there every step of the way, ensuring that the government is held to account for its own plan. We will not simply be a thorn in your side but an independent voice that will alert the ANC when it strays off the vision and goals you have promised the nation. ID will also encourage a lively spirit of critical debate within parliament, to ensure that the country is being exposed to all the different policy options available to take us forward in achieving our shared objectives. There is a difference between being critical of government policies and simply criticising. This is a difference that the DA has not unfortunately learnt.
No government, no matter how good they are can hope to be right all of the time. What is important though, is for government to accept their mistakes and be humble enough to change them. In this spirit, the Independent Democrats will be adding value to the work of government by bringing an independent and analytical voice to bear on issues. We do this in a spirit of wanting to engage with government and highlight possible solutions to the challenges that we face as a nation.
Like the ANC, Mr President, the Independent Democrats are completely committed to transforming this country and making it work for all of our people. In order to do this though, we need to accept the need for independent voices that can ask the critical questions and present creative solutions to our problems. ID will definitely be playing this role as we seek to firmly establish the principle of consensus politics in South Africa.
The concept of a people's contract speaks to the very heart of our new democracy. It is a sad fact that the lack of democracy in the apartheid years led to the severe underdevelopment of the majority of our people. The challenge we are all faced with now is to turn the power of democracy into a force for development.
The Independent Democrats, as our name states, are completely committed to the principles and practice of true democracy in South Africa. People need to be able to direct and guide government on the most appropriate form of development needed for their circumstances. It is a worrying sign that a recent survey found that only one in three South Africans feel that the will of the people are being reflected in government's policies. Too often these voices are not heard and projects and plans are sometimes implemented with disastrous effects.
What we need is more consultation and less consultants. According to government's own ten year review, almost a quarter of government's procurement budget is spent on consultants. We should be using that money to build capacity within government departments so that they can interact with communities themselves and find the right long term solutions. Government must also put in place mechanisms to find out whether lack of capacity is being used an excuse for inefficiency. Mr President, if you want your bold plans to succeed you will need to crack the whip and ensure that Ministers and civil servants implement your programme according to the timeline spelt out by you. You will be very busy, Mr President, implementing this plan so I don't want you to worry about the noise from this small boy over here. I will take care of him!
One of the greatest dangers our new democracy faces is that of poverty. If we are unable to turn the tide of the ever increasing levels of poverty in South Africa, many of the hard fought victories for freedom and democracy would have been for naught.
Poverty is a threat to the very existence of an individual and society at large. Poverty attacks a person's dignity and self worth, and eats away at a person's self esteem. It creates moral dilemmas between choosing a life of crime and basic survival.
The government has embarked on some initiatives to stem the rising levels of poverty such as social grants and public works programs. The only real long term solution though, is tackling the unacceptably high unemployment rate in South Africa. The rallying cry against poverty must be jobs, jobs and jobs!
Once again you have promised the country millions of jobs. I ask you Mr President, though, what has suddenly changed. We have heard these promises before but the jobs have not been forthcoming.
ID believes that the only sustainable way of creating large numbers of jobs is by giving priority and directing resources to small and medium sized businesses. Government and large businesses cannot do this job alone and in fact, they are the ones that are currently shedding jobs.
One practical way of doing this is through awarding the R100 million infrastructure contracts to Small and Medium size businesses. They should be the contractors who are responsible for overcoming the huge backlog that exists in maintaining our needed infrastructure. By awarding it to these contractors, government will be helping them to overcome the hurdle of the capital they need to turn their businesses into viable enterprises.
South Africa also needs to make a link between our education system and the kind of skills that are required for our economy to prosper.
The Independent Democrats also believe that as a nation we need to critically debate important and controversial issues. We cannot shy away from these debates as our new democracy was built through us negotiating and finding each other on divisive issues. On an economic level we should be critically debating amongst all key sectors the precise role of government's intervention in the economy. This will avoid the situation where different sectors simply determine this role for government.
Like you Mr President, the ID also does not want to see children being taught in conditions where they are exposed to the elements. We would go further though and claim that every child in South Africa deserves the quality education guaranteed to them under the constitution. Like our Access to Education Initiative, ID will be presenting a number of practical solutions over this coming year to show how this can be achieved before the opening of schools next year.
The ID supports the government's Anti-Retroviral Roll-out programme, but we are concerned that the current rate of implementation will not achieve government's target of 1,4 million people by 2008. To achieve this target we must provide roughly 300 000 ARV's per annum and not the current 53 000. This virus is outmanoeuvring us a nation and we need to play this virus as a team like we did so successfully for the 2010 bid.
Mr President, do you really think there is a need to create a Special Joint Task Team to apprehend the top 200 criminals in South Africa. In what way will this task team differ from the Scorpions and does this then mean that the Scorpions have been unable to fulfil this task.
Mr President, we in the ID share your vision that you spelt out to the country in your State of the Nation address. It is a bold plan in which all of us will have to play our part in ensuring that it gets implemented according to the timetable laid out by you. ID would like to know where this plan came from though, and whether the proposals contained within it are in addition to what has already been achieved. ID will be there every step of the way, ensuring that the government is held to account for its own plan. We will not simply be a thorn in your side but an independent voice that will alert the ANC when it strays off the vision and goals you have promised the nation. ID will also encourage a lively spirit of critical debate within parliament, to ensure that the country is being exposed to all the different policy options available to take us forward in achieving our shared objectives. There is a difference between being critical of government policies and simply criticising. This is a difference that the DA has not unfortunately learnt.
No government, no matter how good they are can hope to be right all of the time. What is important though, is for government to accept their mistakes and be humble enough to change them. In this spirit, the Independent Democrats will be adding value to the work of government by bringing an independent and analytical voice to bear on issues. We do this in a spirit of wanting to engage with government and highlight possible solutions to the challenges that we face as a nation.
Like the ANC, Mr President, the Independent Democrats are completely committed to transforming this country and making it work for all of our people. In order to do this though, we need to accept the need for independent voices that can ask the critical questions and present creative solutions to our problems. ID will definitely be playing this role as we seek to firmly establish the principle of consensus politics in South Africa.
