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    L Sisulu: Progressive Business Forum Cocktail and Networking Event

    Address by L N Sisulu, African National Congress Member of Parliament and Minister of Housing on the occasion of the Progressive Business Forum (PBF) Cocktail and Networking Event, Durban

    11 August 2008

    Master of ceremonies
    MEC Nkonyeni
    Former Deputy Minister, Renier Schoeman
    Councillors
    Distinguished guests
    Ladies and gentlemen
    Comrades

    I had come here to talk about housing. But the relentless onslaught determines I take a different route, to properly contextualise the present because it weighs so heavily on all else.

    The burden of our time is that we cannot ignore the present, whose presence is all consuming in its outward manifestation of pessimism.

    If you read any of our newspapers today, you could be forgiven for thinking that South Africa is about to implode. Scholars of political transitions or of government studies would attribute this to the psychosis associated with fear of change. Transitions, by their very nature, make for fragile societies. Even though, I must hasten to add, this is not a transition as all else on the ruling party and its policies remain intact. However, in the minds of our citizens, this has all the hallmarks of one. Compare this period and its sense of doom to that which prevailed leading up to our first national democratic elections. And also thereafter, that which followed, what were to be termed, as the miracle years of the Mandela Presidency, prophets of doom were at it again. Uppermost in the minds of many was the question: what will happen when Mandela goes? For every transition, we have had to contend with this fear. Prophets of doom were at it then, feeding on insecurity.

    We are now again fed the same diet. We need to counter the vicious message out there. It does not seem to matter that the African National Congress has pronounced itself on the policy direction. At its elective conference in December 2007, the party adopted policies that should guide the present leadership for the next five years. These policies, which none of the leadership can change, were made public for all and sundry. There is nothing secret about the policies and the deliberations that surround them.

    The ANC does not only preach transparency, it practices it. In doing so, it has been argued, it exposes itself to a lot of criticism. While some may have been intolerant of different perspectives, especially those emanating outside its ranks, there is a growing realisation in the movement that criticism helps in sharpening our understanding of issues. Indeed, we are enriched by alternative perspectives. And so we live with criticism.

    The challenge of the present is how, despite the pessimism, we scale the next summit. Our task is almost as impossible as seemed in 1994. We made it then, because, despite the pessimism, our people believed in us. We have that certainty now. We are on track. We are going through a change of leadership – nothing more, nothing less.

    Every era, every generation, every period has its challenges. And for those confronted with those challenges, the present is burdensome and onerous. The victory of human nature is that it is always drawn by hope to strive. And so it is that from time to time we are so weighed down by the challenge that we forget that human beings are primed to get beyond the challenges.

    What defines a great people, such as the nation is how they respond to challenges. We find ourselves at that crossfire where the global economic meltdown has thrown up a number of crises.

    There is no way we could have avoided the cold wind blown in our direction by the international economic downturn, nor could we have avoided the food price crisis. These have conspired to create the backdrop of doom against which each of our problems are scrutinised and by which we are judged. This should not, in any way, be read as an attempt to minimise or deny that we are faced with enormous challenges.

    It is true, some things we could have avoided, like the energy crisis, but here the President of the Republic apologised for our miscalculation, like the behaviour of some of our cadres in the recent past and this ill-discipline we are dealing with. And perhaps many more.

    I would like to put it to you that while we could have done things better, what we have done right should not be obscured by the pessimistic cloud that hovers above our head ever so constantly. I need to first demystify some of the perceptions that cloud our view, all the better to paint a picture of the reality for our time.

    First there has been the accusation that the Constitution of this country is under threat in the hands of the leadership of the ruling party. This kind of logic reminds me of the mentality and paranoia of the colonial masters at the period of independence in Africa. "Could these people be trusted? Can they handle the responsibility of government? Why, they can't even use a knife and fork, how would they manage the intricacies of modern governance? What, they would fret, if these people subverted all the institutions of governance we have carefully put in place?" And they frantically set up all the checks and balances, just in case.

    Similarly, no sooner was the new leadership of the ANC elected, than such concerns spread like wild fire. And everything that has happened since has fed into that. The spectre of barbarians at the gate!

    May I take this opportunity to assure you we have no intention whatsoever to undermine the Constitution or any of the institutions that underpin our democracy. In the words of the President of the African National Congress last week in Pietermaritzburg, "we were ready to lay down our lives for democracy, we deliberately created each of these institutions to protect and safeguard that which we fought for. Why would we now seek to subvert or undermine them?"

    Why indeed? No one forced us to adopt the Constitution we have. We freely, willingly and proudly crafted it to represent all the aspirations of our people. Why, for heaven's sake, would anyone want to believe that it is in danger in the hands of people who fought for these aspirations and rights.

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    Last edited by Dave A; 20-Aug-08 at 02:45 PM.

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