Mr Speaker, 2010 is a big year for me and for the country. It is the year when the eyes of the world will be upon us; on July 11, as many as three-quarters of the global population will suspend their habitual fighting and fornicating (me included) to watch a simple game with 22 players, two goals, a referee and a round ball.
Rather like my Cabinet, it is not quite as simple as it looks. They — my Cabinet — must raise their game this year; as must we all. For on July 12 I will get my country back, and that odious little Swiss, with his patronising words and his faux concerns for the welfare of Africa, will get out of what little hair I have left and permit me to take charge of the Republic once again.
Yet, Mr Speaker, as Fifa walks out of the door, its pockets bulging, so too will the helpful distraction of humanity’s greatest tournament. We will be left to our own devices, just another country, ordinary once again, but with extraordinary challenges to mount — if I may be permitted to use that expression.
So, Mr Speaker, it is the year when together we can do more, to coin our election manifesto slogan. To do more together, I recognise that we must all take responsibility — to summon the spirit of unity that Nelson Mandela evoked when he walked out of prison exactly 20 years ago today — and that I must offer more decisive leadership for South Africa if it is to gather up the collective strength necessary to meet the challenges of the day.
I invoke the spirit of Madiba not merely because I wish to cloak my presidency in the diverting aura of the great man and the notion of Rainbowism that proved so seductive for so long, but because I wish to step up to that particular plate of greatness. I have, Mr Speaker, begun elaborate preparations to ensure that when the Bafana Bafana captain steps up shortly after 9pm on July 11 at our very own Sowetan Theatre of Dreams, I can have that “Madiba Moment” that our former president enjoyed when the Amabokke won our tumultuous victory in 1995.
Then, Mr Speaker, I will be able to approach the ANC’s national general council in September confident that however sharp the knives may be by then, however determined those of my enemies within the ANC alliance may be to prove that I do not have the “capacity” to govern — apparently, Mr Speaker, their chosen euphemism for the intellectual grasp of the complex issues of policy that come before us which they claim I lack — I will have sealed my place in history!
Mr Speaker, as you well know, this is not the “State of the ANC” speech, tempting though it may be to link the fortunes of the nation with those of our ruling party.
Yet I have come to appreciate one thing in office: that when my predecessor but one quoted, confoundingly often, the words of that Irish poet and asked “Will the centre hold?” he was asking it not of the country but of the ANC.
Were he to ask me now, I would be compelled to answer, Mr Speaker, that I do not know the answer. I have tried to be the “listening president”, leaving my door open to any Tom, Dick, Harry or Sonono who cares to wander in.
But I recognise now that this approach has its dangers. I must be more prudent. I simply cannot listen to everyone and I recognise that for the Republic to prosper I must not confuse consultation with vacillation, lest those to whom I delegate power and authority fail to act because they fear they do not have my sufficient political backing.
Take the minister of public enterprises, Mr Speaker. My deputy president has been unrelenting in his entreaties to me that I should back her more. But it is not so simple. There are so many good people eager apparently to serve the public by taking up senior management positions in state-owned enterprises.
I have been delighted by this enthusiasm for national service and, given that many of these people showed such good judgment in backing my fight against the forces of Mbeki-ite darkness and my ascent to the Union Buildings, I see no reason to think that they will be any less sage in their use of state power when awarding government tenders.
Yet, I also recognise that on energy we must now have a serious national conversation, which includes all stakeholders, on a relatively equal basis, and that Eskom must be dragged from its laager. Luckily, in 2010 the National Planning Commission will be up and running and it will help provide the sort of “joined-up”, long-term strategic thinking that is necessary if we are to be a sustainable, winning nation.
So that it does not remain mired in territorial in-fighting within my Cabinet, I took ministers Manuel, Gordhan and Patel — who, in particular, was beginning to wonder how he was going to spend the next four years — and locked them in a dark room and told them to sort it out. They squealed, but they did not demur. They are now clear about who is going to take responsibility for what and how the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts.
This, Mr Speaker, is the kind of clear, decisive leadership I will provide in 2010.
So, too, on climate change: shortly before the Copenhagen summit in December, I announced, rather suddenly on my website, that South Africa would show global leadership and that we would over time cut our emissions by about 34%.
That surprised many, including our own negotiating team, who were by then encamped in that small but bitterly cold North European capital. But it showed South Africa’s willingness to set the highest standards, to make the sacrifices necessary and to aspire to greatness. Of course, Mr Speaker, I cannot possibly reveal to this House whether, in my meeting the previous week with President Sarkozy, that cunning little Frenchman twisted my arm with intoxicating promises of money and technology to assist our nuclear-build programme, which will consume so many of our resources in coming years.
Nor can I explain how it was that, just a few days later, my government published, on December 31 2009 of all days, buried in the Government Gazette as if no one would notice, a lamentably meagre three-page “Integrated Resource Plan” that purports to explicate how and when South Africa will meet its electricity generation needs in the coming years.
Because, to explain, that would be to explain the bemusing contradictions of my administration.
And I prefer, Mr Speaker, to keep people guessing, in a condition of permanent uncertainty and flux, because that more accurately reflects the State of the Nation. Thank you.