SA Press Club
2003-04-16. Let me start by thanking you for this opportunity to address you at such an auspicious occasion. I feel that in many ways the job that you do as the press of South Africa is very similar to the job that I am expected to do as an opposition parliamentarian. We are both called upon to hold the government to account and to expose those areas where we believe they are not living up to their responsibilities to the South African public.
These last few years have kept both of us very busy and judging by the
current state of affairs in the country I feel confident that we will
both have a job for a long time.
In fact this brings to me the subject of my speech today, which is the role of a responsible opposition party in South Africa's new democracy. Obviously you are all aware of my decision to start a new opposition party in South Africa called the Independent Democrats. My hope for this party is that it can become the kind of responsible opposition party that will be able to add value to the work of the government. We will do this by holding it accountable to the wishes of the electorate and where necessary will argue for its policies to be reoriented to meeting the pressing needs of all South Africans. I believe that the South African political landscape is currently in a rut and that people have generally grown suspicious and disillusioned with politicians in the country. The recent debacle with the floor crossing legislation has unfortunately confirmed for many South Africans the belief that politicians only seem to be in it for themselves and that they will switch allegiance if it is in their career interests to do so. As many of you know, I firmly opposed the floor crossing legislation because I felt that it wasn't being fair to the voters. Some of you might therefore be asking why I then chose to use the opportunity of the floor crossing period to leave the PAC and start my own political party. It should be understood though that I didn't cross the floor to take up a position of privilege in another political party. It certainly wasn't for lack of many attractive offers being made to me by various parties though, but I honestly didn't feel that I could sacrifice my sense of political integrity for career positioning. Witnessing the disastrous effect that the Western
Cape Premier position seems to have on all who occupy it, I also thought it wise to steer well clear of that job!
My reason for leaving the PAC was simply due to the fact that I needed more political space. As our democracy has matured, many political actors, myself included, have found that our views and approach to politics have gone through their own metamorphous. Don't worry, this is not to say that I will be changing my style to one of a timid old lady. You can rest assured that I'm still the firebrand politician that everyone has come to know over the past few years. What has changed however, is my approach to opposition politics and the belief that the only way we can protect our new democracy is to start building an opposition party now that can be a political home for all South Africans.
Unfortunately, most other opposition parties in South Africa have tended to become divided along sectoral and racial lines by representing the interests of certain constituencies. They have also fallen into the trap of simply defining themselves in terms of their opposition to the ANC. I'm not against the ANC government and the Independent Democrats and myself will support it on issues in which we feel it is doing a good job. This is not to say that we share the NNP's belief that we need to get into bed with it, but merely that credit needs to be given when it is due. Correspondingly though, shortcomings also need to be exposed and government accountability needs to be fought for at every turn. It is the mission of the ID Party to make sure that government remains accountable to the public in terms of both being free of corruption and in living up to the needs and aspirations of all South Africans as enshrined in our constitution.
The first question that many people are now asking of the Independent Democrats is that of what we stand for. The task of drawing up policy on all the issues confronting South Africa is not an easy one though and we believe as the ID Party that we need to consult as widely as possible to ensure that we represent the views of all our members. The process that we have embarked on in this respect will start to deliver draft policy within the next few weeks. Having said that though, there are a few positions that everyone should be able to identify me and the ID Party with. As stated before, our number one priority is to ensure government accountability. In order to do this we also believe in true transparency and that all public institutions should be open to the public in the way they conduct themselves. While other parties might claim to be in favour of transparency we aim to take it one step further by devising a system with IDASA that will ensure that we have the most transparent funding system of any political party. We feel it is important to ensure that the party itself reflects the values that we espouse for the country.
The other principle that we feel has been neglected in this country over the past few years has been that of true public participation. On numerous processes the government has shown lip service to public participation without actually involving affected communities in the decisions that they make. This needs to be addressed and we have to find more creative ways in involving people in determining their destiny. One of the biggest problems we face in this country is one of effective delivery and we believe that by truly involving communities in this task we will able to in some small way address this problem. We have some of the most progressive policy in the world and our constitution is the envy of many countries, but all this means nothing unless we can ensure that government is able to effectively do its job of implementing it. As a responsible opposition party, the Independent Democrats will fight hard to ensure that parliament lives up to its oversight duties in making sure that government departments do their job effectively.
It's only been three weeks since I announced the start of the Independent Democrats and in that time I have been overwhelmed by both the amount of work required to build a new party and on the other hand the amount of support that has come from all over South Africa to help me in my task. My parliamentary colleague Douglas Gibson recently stated that I will now learn the difference between being a street politician and being the leader of a new party. Much to his dismay, I can confidently say that as per my usual style I'm winning this battle and that the Independent Democrats are fast becoming a credible political force in the country. We have already opened up a national office and two provincial offices in Gauteng and one in Limpopo Province. I have also surrounded myself with able people who embody my style of getting the job done. It is through their efforts that we have been able to devise systems to handle the enormous numbers of people joining the party everyday and that the logo which symoblises the spirit of the party is in the process of being designed. I have also chosen a list of interim leaders that will represent the party up until the First National Conference. We are working towards holding this Inaugural Conference at the end of May where we will run democratic processes to decide on policy and elect the leaders of the party. The leaders that I present to you today will, I believe, do an able job of representing the party until this conference. They come from diverse backgrounds and parts of the country, but they all have in common the qualities of an Independent Democrat. They all are passionate about this country and are fierce defenders of our justice and democracy. They are:
1) Professor Themba Sono, ID MPL Gauteng
2) Reverend Eric Adolph
3) Yeshuo Sias
4) Brett Anderson
5) Lance Greyling
6) Gladys Lamola
7) Cordelia Sibuyi
8) Brendon Shields
9) Mbhazima Chabalala
10) Geoffrey Khorombi
11) Elgy Khoza
12) Thomani Makwarela
13) Lehlohonolo Dhlamini
14) Robert Stammers
15) Anna Treurnicht
16) Christopher Mudau Nelwamondo
Once again I thank you for this opportunity to address you and I look forward to sharing the fortunes of the Independent Party with you over the next year and beyond.
Thank you
In fact this brings to me the subject of my speech today, which is the role of a responsible opposition party in South Africa's new democracy. Obviously you are all aware of my decision to start a new opposition party in South Africa called the Independent Democrats. My hope for this party is that it can become the kind of responsible opposition party that will be able to add value to the work of the government. We will do this by holding it accountable to the wishes of the electorate and where necessary will argue for its policies to be reoriented to meeting the pressing needs of all South Africans. I believe that the South African political landscape is currently in a rut and that people have generally grown suspicious and disillusioned with politicians in the country. The recent debacle with the floor crossing legislation has unfortunately confirmed for many South Africans the belief that politicians only seem to be in it for themselves and that they will switch allegiance if it is in their career interests to do so. As many of you know, I firmly opposed the floor crossing legislation because I felt that it wasn't being fair to the voters. Some of you might therefore be asking why I then chose to use the opportunity of the floor crossing period to leave the PAC and start my own political party. It should be understood though that I didn't cross the floor to take up a position of privilege in another political party. It certainly wasn't for lack of many attractive offers being made to me by various parties though, but I honestly didn't feel that I could sacrifice my sense of political integrity for career positioning. Witnessing the disastrous effect that the Western
Cape Premier position seems to have on all who occupy it, I also thought it wise to steer well clear of that job!
My reason for leaving the PAC was simply due to the fact that I needed more political space. As our democracy has matured, many political actors, myself included, have found that our views and approach to politics have gone through their own metamorphous. Don't worry, this is not to say that I will be changing my style to one of a timid old lady. You can rest assured that I'm still the firebrand politician that everyone has come to know over the past few years. What has changed however, is my approach to opposition politics and the belief that the only way we can protect our new democracy is to start building an opposition party now that can be a political home for all South Africans.
Unfortunately, most other opposition parties in South Africa have tended to become divided along sectoral and racial lines by representing the interests of certain constituencies. They have also fallen into the trap of simply defining themselves in terms of their opposition to the ANC. I'm not against the ANC government and the Independent Democrats and myself will support it on issues in which we feel it is doing a good job. This is not to say that we share the NNP's belief that we need to get into bed with it, but merely that credit needs to be given when it is due. Correspondingly though, shortcomings also need to be exposed and government accountability needs to be fought for at every turn. It is the mission of the ID Party to make sure that government remains accountable to the public in terms of both being free of corruption and in living up to the needs and aspirations of all South Africans as enshrined in our constitution.
The first question that many people are now asking of the Independent Democrats is that of what we stand for. The task of drawing up policy on all the issues confronting South Africa is not an easy one though and we believe as the ID Party that we need to consult as widely as possible to ensure that we represent the views of all our members. The process that we have embarked on in this respect will start to deliver draft policy within the next few weeks. Having said that though, there are a few positions that everyone should be able to identify me and the ID Party with. As stated before, our number one priority is to ensure government accountability. In order to do this we also believe in true transparency and that all public institutions should be open to the public in the way they conduct themselves. While other parties might claim to be in favour of transparency we aim to take it one step further by devising a system with IDASA that will ensure that we have the most transparent funding system of any political party. We feel it is important to ensure that the party itself reflects the values that we espouse for the country.
The other principle that we feel has been neglected in this country over the past few years has been that of true public participation. On numerous processes the government has shown lip service to public participation without actually involving affected communities in the decisions that they make. This needs to be addressed and we have to find more creative ways in involving people in determining their destiny. One of the biggest problems we face in this country is one of effective delivery and we believe that by truly involving communities in this task we will able to in some small way address this problem. We have some of the most progressive policy in the world and our constitution is the envy of many countries, but all this means nothing unless we can ensure that government is able to effectively do its job of implementing it. As a responsible opposition party, the Independent Democrats will fight hard to ensure that parliament lives up to its oversight duties in making sure that government departments do their job effectively.
It's only been three weeks since I announced the start of the Independent Democrats and in that time I have been overwhelmed by both the amount of work required to build a new party and on the other hand the amount of support that has come from all over South Africa to help me in my task. My parliamentary colleague Douglas Gibson recently stated that I will now learn the difference between being a street politician and being the leader of a new party. Much to his dismay, I can confidently say that as per my usual style I'm winning this battle and that the Independent Democrats are fast becoming a credible political force in the country. We have already opened up a national office and two provincial offices in Gauteng and one in Limpopo Province. I have also surrounded myself with able people who embody my style of getting the job done. It is through their efforts that we have been able to devise systems to handle the enormous numbers of people joining the party everyday and that the logo which symoblises the spirit of the party is in the process of being designed. I have also chosen a list of interim leaders that will represent the party up until the First National Conference. We are working towards holding this Inaugural Conference at the end of May where we will run democratic processes to decide on policy and elect the leaders of the party. The leaders that I present to you today will, I believe, do an able job of representing the party until this conference. They come from diverse backgrounds and parts of the country, but they all have in common the qualities of an Independent Democrat. They all are passionate about this country and are fierce defenders of our justice and democracy. They are:
1) Professor Themba Sono, ID MPL Gauteng
2) Reverend Eric Adolph
3) Yeshuo Sias
4) Brett Anderson
5) Lance Greyling
6) Gladys Lamola
7) Cordelia Sibuyi
8) Brendon Shields
9) Mbhazima Chabalala
10) Geoffrey Khorombi
11) Elgy Khoza
12) Thomani Makwarela
13) Lehlohonolo Dhlamini
14) Robert Stammers
15) Anna Treurnicht
16) Christopher Mudau Nelwamondo
Once again I thank you for this opportunity to address you and I look forward to sharing the fortunes of the Independent Party with you over the next year and beyond.
Thank you
