We have allowed one powerful man to get away with too much for too long. This man is here in our presence today.
Honourable President, in these very chambers, just five days ago, you broke Parliament.
Please understand, Honourable President, when I use the term “honourable”, I do it out of respect for the traditions and conventions of this august House.
But please do not take it literally. For you, Honourable President, are not an honourable man.
You are a broken man, presiding over a broken society.
You are willing to break every democratic institution to try and fix the legal predicament you find yourself in.
You are willing to break this Parliament if it means escaping accountability for the wrongs you have done.
On Thursday afternoon, outside this House, Members of Parliament were being arrested and assaulted by your riot police.
A few hours later, inside this House, our freedom to communicate was violated by an order to jam the telecommunications network.
Not long after, armed police officers in plain shirts stormed into this sacred chamber and physically attacked members of this House.
This was more than an assault on Members of Parliament. It was an assault on the very foundations of our democracy.
Parliament’s constitutional obligation to fearlessly scrutinise and oversee the Executive lost all meaning on Thursday night.
The brute force of the state won. And the hearts of our nation broke.
We knew, at that very moment, that our democratic order was in grave danger.
And what did you do?
You laughed. You laughed while the people of South Africa cried for their beloved country.
You laughed while trampling Madiba’s legacy – in the very week that we celebrated 25 years since his release.
Honourable President, we will never forgive you for what you have done.
Madam Speaker, I led my party out of this House on Thursday night because we could not sit by while our freedoms were destroyed right in front of us.
When we emerged from this chamber, we heard the President reading the cold and empty words from his prepared text.
They were the words of a broken man, presiding over a broken society.
For 6 years, he has run from the 783 counts of corruption, fraud and racketeering that have haunted him from before the day he was elected.
For 6 years, this broken man has spent his waking hours plotting and planning to avoid his day in court.
In this broken man’s path of destruction, lies a litany of broken institutions. Each one of them targeted because of their constitutional power to hold him to account.
via www.rdm.co.za
This is a very powerful speech. I met him last year and I knew I was in the presence of a proper leader. I told Oliver that this man was the future.
Fantastic - of course the ANC and that idiot will ignore it, but as Maimane says - change is coming.
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