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Response of President Thabo Mbeki, to
the Debate on The State of The Nation Address
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, CAPE TOWN, FEBRUARY
15, 2001
Madame Speaker,
Deputy President,
Honourable Members:
One of the major events in the global political calendar
last year was the UN Millennium Assembly. As the House
is aware, this Assembly adopted an important Millennium
Declaration.
We participated in the preparation of this Declaration
as well as its adoption. Accordingly, we made a commitment
to strive for the realisation of the objectives contained
in the Declaration.
One of these relates to the issue of poverty. In this
regard, the Millennium Declaration said: " We will
spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children
from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme
poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently
subjected. We are committed to making the right to development
a reality for everyone and to freeing the entire human
race from want.
" We resolve therefore to create an environment
- at the national and global levels alike - which is
conducive to development and to the elimination of poverty...
" We resolve further: to halve, by the year 2015,
the proportion of the world's people whose income is
less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people
who suffer from hunger and, by the same date, to halve
the proportion of people who are unable to reach or
to afford safe drinking water.
" We must also take note of the fact that the
Declaration includes a special section on Africa which
commits the world community: " To take special
measures to address the challenges of poverty eradication
and sustainable development in Africa, including debt
cancellation, improved market access, enhanced Official
Development Assistance and increased flows of Foreign
Direct Investment, as well as transfers of technology."
For its part, the Human Development Report 2000 of
the UNDP said: " The 1995 South African Participatory
Poverty Assessment described the reality behind the
statistics. It reported that millions of citizens are
plagued by continuous ill health, experience extraordinary
levels of anxiety and stress (and the accompanying realities
of violence and abuse vented mainly on women and children)
and perform harsh and dangerous work for low incomes.
There is pervasive demoralisation and fatalism. A sense
of hopelessness and an inability to alter the conditions
of life is a defining feature. Yet all this is matched
by the courage and perseverance with which South Africa's
poor attempt to hold these ravages at bay." This
Report was very correct to draw attention to the fact
that poverty is not only expressed in shortage of food
shelter and clothing.
It is also expressed:
in ill health;
in high levels of anxiety and stress;
in the prevalence of a spirit of disempowerment and
hopelessness;
in high levels of crime, including violence among the
poor themselves, especially against women and children,
in many instances accompanied by substance abuse;
in further entrenching discrimination against women;
in destructive ignorance and superstition; and,
the destruction and denial of the human dignity of millions
of people.
I would like to thank those Members of the National
Assembly who focussed their comments on or integrated
in their interventions the centrally important issue
of the fight against poverty.
The majority of our people are poor. A significant
minority among them is very poor.
As members of the House have said, we cannot speak
of the new South Africa if we fail to deal with the
urgent challenge of poverty.
If we are to speak of important matters on the national
agenda, of matters that are of pressing concern to the
greatest numbers of our people, the elimination of poverty
and the racial and gender disparities that continue
to characterise our society, occupy pride of place.
If we are to speak of matters that must continue to
take pride of place in all the programmes of the government,
the restoration of the human dignity of the majority
of our people, and therefore the eradication of poverty
and racial and gender inequalities, are those matters.
The government programme for 2001 we announced in the
State of the Nation Address and the more detailed programmes
the Honourable Ministers have communicated to the country
during the last few days through the media, are all
focused on this matter.
We need a larger economy growing at high rates to be
able to generate the material resources that would enable
our country to meet the needs of our people.
We need to effect the ways and means by which this
economy will develop in a manner that enables it to
absorb those who are unemployed as well as the new entrants
into the labour market.
The realisation of these objectives requires that we
achieve much higher levels of new public and private
investment into the economy than we have so far achieved.
The Government has made its commitment towards the
accomplishment of this goal and will proceed to implement
the investment plans we have outlined, including those
that will be implemented by the state corporations.
The Honourable Minister of Finance will also address
this matter when he presents the Budget next week.
The job creating growth to which we are committed also
requires that we pay particular attention to the development
of small, medium and micro enterprises.
The Government is determined to assist in making capital
available for investment in these sectors of business
and will therefore act on this matter.
The growth of our economy also depends on its competitiveness.
We will therefore implement the measures that are within
our means, to contribute to such competitiveness, including
the reduction of input costs, of which we spoke, and
increasing labour productivity through the vigorous
implementation of the Human Resource Development Programme.
We renew our call to business and organised labour
themselves to respond positively to these initiatives,
so that through united action, we can expedite our advance
towards the eradication of poverty in our country, raising
our level of development and restoring the dignity of
all our citizens.
Similarly, the Government will continue to intensify
its work directed at improving the quality of life of
our people in other ways. Accordingly, the implementation
of our rural development and urban renewal programmes
will take place.
Through these programmes, we aim to reach the very
poor in our country, those most in need of the basic
necessities of life, who have to contend with the most
abject poverty, paying particular attention to women,
the youth and the disabled.
It is not the intention of these programmes to distribute
welfare hand-outs, but to help generate sustainable
development that will pull the people affected out of
endemic poverty and entrenched underdevelopment, permanently.
The Government recognises the fact that in the short
to medium term, many people will still not be able to
enter the economy as income earners. These will continue
to require direct government assistance to alleviate
the impact of poverty.
It is for this reason that we will, as we have already
announced, work to expand the social safety net, bearing
in mind what the economy can afford and the need for
us to achieve the correct balances between social and
economic spending.
This year, Statistics South Africa will conduct a new
population census, Census 2001. This important exercise
will help us once again to gain a more accurate and
up-to-date picture of our reality.
I appeal to all our people and institutions fully to
cooperate with Statistics South Africa to facilitate
the successful conclusion of the vital and necessary
work it has to do.
Madame Speaker:
The Honourable Ministers working in the criminal justice
cluster have more than adequately addressed the issue
of safety and security, which, as we have said already,
is fundamental to the better quality of life for all
we all seek to achieve.
As the masses of our people have grown accustomed to
the fact that now we have a democratic state and government,
and no longer an apartheid state and government to which
they were naturally hostile and from which they were
alienated, their participation in determining their
destiny has increased.
We must encourage this trend. In this regard, a special
responsibility falls on the shoulders of the political
parties.
Among other things, we must encourage the people to
take an even more active part in the community-police
fora, and urge them to continue to communicate to the
law enforcement agencies and other organs of state any
information they may have on corrupt and criminal misconduct.
As some Members of the National Assembly have said,
we must all work to mobilise the masses of our people
to be involved in these programmes of social upliftment.
The political parties in particular and other mass
based formations will have to make a special effort
to help develop a veritable mass movement for development
and change, to speed up the process towards the eradication
of poverty.
Again we appeal to those who have skills and other
resources they can bring to support the efforts of this
movement, to notify especially their municipal governments
of their availability to work for change.
Madame Speaker:
Everything points to the need for us to continue to
focus on the challenge of youth development. All the
programmes we have announced will concentrate on the
youth, among others.
In addition, during this year of the 25th Anniversary
of the Soweto Uprising, the Presidency, the National
Youth Commission, the Ministries and Departments of
Sports and Recreation, Arts and Culture and Education
will cooperate to develop programmes to draw larger
numbers of our youth into sports and cultural activities,
including those directed at the promotion of traditional
culture and sports.
These programmes should also enable us to take the
necessary steps to bring up our youth in the context
of a new value system aimed at ensuring that they grow
up to be good and responsible citizens.
Clearly, the youth organisations will be critical to
the success of this programme as they will have to mobilise
and inspire the youth to get involved in what should
be an act of self-development.
Madame Speaker:
The legislation enabling the establishment of the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission empowers the President,
by proclamation in the Government Gazette, to reconvene
the Commission for the purpose of completing its final
Report, after the Committee on Amnesty has completed
its work.
It is expected that the Committee on Amnesty will complete
its work next month. This will enable the Committee
on Reparation and Rehabilitation and the TRC itself
to prepare their final reports. This will also enable
the Government to complete its own work on the complex
issue of final reparations. In the meantime, we will
continue to meet our obligations with regard to interim
reparations, as we have done.
I would also like to take this opportunity once more
to pay tribute to our National Defence Force for the
valuable work it continues to carry out at home and
abroad.
At home, it has continued to play a significant role
in the fight against crime.
As I speak, it is also involved in humanitarian work
relating to India and Mozambique, helping to deliver
relief in the aftermath of the earthquake and the renewed
floods in these two countries, respectively.
Others of our military personnel serve in peace keeping
operations in other parts of Africa and will be increasingly
involved in these operations.
Madame Speaker:
The Honourable Members may be aware of the announcement
made this morning concerning Anglo American plc and
De Beers.
In this regard, I would like to thank the Chairperson
of De Beers, Mr Nicholas Oppenheimer, and the other
leaders of De Beers and Anglo American for the courtesy
of discussing this major corporate restructuring with
us ahead of its finalisation.
An important result of this transaction for our country
and economy will be the immediate flow into South Africa
of foreign currency estimated at US $2.8 billion, or
about R21.8 billion.
I would also like to express our sincere appreciation
for the confidence in the new South Africa demonstrated
by a group and a family that have played a major role
in our country's economic growth and development for
more than a century.
One of our daughters and mothers, Miriam Makeba, has,
in reality, become a citizen of the world.
She has distinguished herself on our continent and
beyond as one of the most well-known and beloved musicians
and personalities of our era.
During her period in exile she made valuable friends
and became internationally recognised for her music.
She has not only been active in music and the political
arena, but has made valuable contributions to and has
been recognised for her work in the social, cultural
and humanitarian fields.
Her fearless humanitarianism earned her the Dag Hammerskjold
Peace Prize in 1986. The ordinary people of our Continent
gave her the title, Mama Africa!
As we strengthen our bonds of friendship and solidarity
with our fellow Africans and to reinforce our work in
this regard, I am pleased to announce that I have appointed
Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba, as South Africa's Goodwill
Ambassador to Africa.
Madame Speaker and Honourable Members:
Ahead of us is an exciting period of our country's
renaissance. It will be marked by our steady advance
towards the elimination of poverty rather than the expanding
pauperisation of the majority that has been one of the
distinguishing features of our country for 300 years.
It will be distinguished by the recovery of the identity
and pride of the millions of Africans that colonialism
and apartheid sought to transform into a depersonalised
mass of disposable commodities.
It will experience the flowering of all our diverse
cultures and languages without antagonism among them,
constituting the essential building blocks towards the
formation of the South African nation and identity.
We will be involved in the creation of the situation
in which an African people will contribute something
of great value to the rest of the world, a non-racial
society whose racial and cultural diversity will serve
as a factor of strength and enrichment rather than one
of division and conflict.
The day will dawn when we, as Africans, will, as all
our people desire, restore the situation that obtained
at periods now dimmed by the mists of time, when Africans
were in the vanguard of the advance towards higher levels
of civilisation.
Poor as they were, uneducated as they were, barefoot
and poorly-clothed, and while the theoreticians argued
- on the one hand this and on the other hand that -
the masses of our people carried the burden of our struggle
for democracy, peace, non-racism, non-sexism and prosperity.
I know it as a matter of fact that these great masses
will join the historic struggle in which we are engaged,
for fundamental change and development.
The political leadership gathered in this House will
have to take its own decision as to whether it will
lead or follow these masses.
To the faint-hearted and cynical, who will mock the
strivings of the people because they do not want to
join in the offensive to make a decisive break with
our past, what we will say, in seTswana, is - sesafeleng,
se a tlhola! I thank you for your participation in the
debate and your attention.
Enquiries:
Bheki khumalo
083 200 1900
Tasneem Carrim
Communications
The Presidency
Private Bag X1000
Pretoria 0001
Tel: +27 (0)12 319 1500
Fax: +27 (0)12 323 6080
Cell: +27 (0)83 650 7119
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