Our people’s lives matter, Mr President: DA leader Mmusi Maimane responds to Zuma budget vote speech

As a former President once said: I am an African.

And so I was proud that yesterday, across this great continent, we celebrated Africa Day, a day that serves to commemorate the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.

Africa Day symbolises the emancipation of the African continent, and the struggle to see it elevated out of poverty and affirm itself as an equal player in the global economy.

As an African, I believe in the future of this continent and this country. I believe we can succeed if more people find their voices, and then make the right choices.

The DA has a vision for a South African society that shares a common belief in the values of freedom, fairness and opportunity.

A vision to build a democratic state supported by the institutions given birth from our Constitution.

We are fighting for the day when an inclusive economy will offer the same opportunities to all South Africans regardless of the circumstances of their birth.

This is the dream that leaders like Nelson Mandela fought for, but we still have a great deal of work to do to achieve it.

It should make all of us angry that, over the past five years, our economy has grown at less than 2%.

Despite our position as a global trading hub, our BRICS membership, and our vast pool of natural resources, one in three South Africans cannot find a job.

Honourable Speaker, this is a human disaster on a global scale.

Think about it: an entire generation of young black South Africans are not only unemployed but unemployable.

Many are turning to crime because they don’t have the opportunity to earn an honest living.

Many are abusing alcohol and drugs because it is their only means of escape.

The dreams they once had now elude them. Life is reduced to mere survival.

If we want to be an African success story, these are the people we must fight for.

Indeed, our Constitution guarantees rights and freedoms for all our people.

But I don’t see much evidence that our government cares about the people.

All I see is a government that cares about itself.

A government that enriches itself.

A government that abuses its power to protect itself.

The Marikana tragedy shows just how the President and his cronies have protected themselves at the expense of the poor.

Almost three years after 34 miners were brutally gunned down on 16 August 2012, the public is still waiting for answers.

Honourable Speaker, when exactly will the President make the findings of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry public?

Every minute that passes without this report being made public cheapens the lives of every person massacred at Marikana. The miners, their families, the lives of all South Africans are diminished by the President’s delay.

We have just celebrated Africa Day, Mr President. But by withholding this report you are telling us that the lives of black workers are cheap.

Honourable President, I believe that black lives, like all lives, matter.

If we are to take our place amongst the world’s successful nations, we must send out a signal that all are equal before the law.

Those responsible for the atrocities at Marikana should be fired and jailed.

So why, Mr President, have you not released the Marikana Report? The report belongs to all South Africans, it is not yours to do what you like with.

Your delay makes us wonder about which members of your inner circle you are trying to protect. Tell us, Mr President, whose reputations matter more than the lives lost at Marikana?

Is it Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who chose his words carefully but deliberately when he called for “concomitant action” to bring the strike to an end in order to protect his personal interest in the mine?

Or former Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega, who allegedly acted under political pressure and wielded their influence to subdue the miners using any means necessary?

These questions demand answers. We can never bring those miners back, but we can help their families get some closure. And we can get to the truth.

Mr President, today I call on you to let the truth be known. Let justice take its course, even if it means that some of your closes allies are implicated.

I make this call knowing that you have a track-record of dodging accountability, and a history of protecting those closest to you.

We saw this at Nkandla, where R246 million in public funds were used to build you a presidential palace while millions are without homes.

Instead of facing up to the charges, you dismissed the Public Protector’s findings and used your party’s majority in this National Assembly to whitewash the ad hoc Committee’s report.

Honourable Speaker, more than a year after the Public Protector released her report, the President is yet to repay a single cent for the undue benefit he received through the lavish upgrades to his private home.

And we are still waiting for the report by the Police Minister on the President’s liability, despite your assurances that it should have been submitted to Parliament last week.

Through it all, the members on my right sit in silence, fearful of biting the hand that feeds them.

You know as well as I do that President Zuma is the reason your party is losing votes.

Your support for him is killing you.

Like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.

But it is not you I am worried about.

What troubles me is your silence when millions are wasted on luxuries while our children go hungry.

You sat silently when millions of rands were spent earlier this month to charter not one, but two additional private jets to bring the President home from Russia.

You are silent when the President announced an inquiry into the National Director of Public Prosecutions when the National Prosecuting Authority got to close to investigating him and those close to him. He then killed that inquiry to pave the way to get rid of Mxolisi Nxasana with a golden handshake.

And you sat silently when the President appointed his former advisor to head up the Independent Electoral Commission – the institution tasked with free and fair elections.

Our dream at the dawn of our democracy was for a government that serves all the people instead of a minority. That government should always serve the will of the people, and never the will of one person.

But ask yourselves this: are the majority of South Africans better off with President Zuma?

Honourable Members,

The time has come for all South Africans to be honest and admit that our progress toward an inclusive economy has stalled.

The time has come to be honest about the collapse of our economy under President Zuma.

The time has come to reject the broken promises from this broken man. The more jobs he promises, the less we believe him.

The time has come to reject Black Economic Empowerment that only empowers the rich. We want BEE that creates jobs for all South Africans, not an already connected few.

And the time has come to fight for equal access to education for all. No more excuses for mud schools and lack of textbooks. And no more deserving students left behind for financial reasons.

Honourable Speaker, Apartheid was a system that destroyed our lives and our livelihoods. It was a system that told you where to live and who to marry. A system that said your worth was determined by the colour of your skin.

We beat that system and we are never going back.

It is a matter of fact that South Africa today is better than it was back then. But this does not mean we must settle for what we have got.

We cannot accept crony enrichment.

We cannot allow the lives of young people to be destroyed by joblessness and substance abuse.

And we can never allow the massacre of mineworkers to be covered up.

Every day that we fail to hold our government to a higher standard, we are failing in our duty to the South African people.

We must hold ourselves to a much higher standard than Apartheid. We need to measure ourselves against the South Africa we know we can be.

And this is why the DA is fighting for a better tomorrow. It is why we are working hard to implement our vision of a South Africa where there is freedom, fairness and opportunity. For all.

I thank you.