Watch John Steenhuisen’s Heartfelt Tribute to “Worthy Opponent” & Call to Rise above Racism
Breaking with tradition, the Democratic Alliance Chief Whip, John Steenhuisen, praised African National Congress Chief Whip, Mphikwa Jackson Mthembu, in a heartfelt tribute to his “worthy opponent” in Parliament on Wednesday. In Steenhuisen’s final speech in Parliament for 2016, he thanked all those who work behind the scenes and thanked the Chief Whips of other opposition parties […]
Breaking with tradition, the Democratic Alliance Chief Whip, John Steenhuisen, praised African National Congress Chief Whip, Mphikwa Jackson Mthembu, in a heartfelt tribute to his “worthy opponent” in Parliament on Wednesday.
In Steenhuisen’s final speech in Parliament for 2016, he thanked all those who work behind the scenes and thanked the Chief Whips of other opposition parties for their “good spirit, hard work and the terrific cooperation that the opposition has enjoyed this year”.
He then turned to the ANC’s Mthembu and said: “Forgive me if I break with tradition this year. Chief Whip, I want to specifically thank you and to pay tribute to you for your role and your approach, as well as the tremendous courage you have shown this year.” His comment was met with applause from the House.
Steenhuisen continued: “You fight your party corner with vigour, but your simultaneous willingness to listen to other parties, and above all to be able to disagree without being disagreeable has heralded a new era of relations in the ‘whippery’ of our Parliament.
“Sir, we have opposed each other vehemently on a range of issues, but I want to acknowledge you and your Deputy Chief Whip as worthy opponents and thank you both for your efforts this year.”
Steenhuisen went on to say that 2016 has been a challenging year for South Africa with economic uncertainty, the ‘spectre’ of junk status hanging over the country, violence on campuses, a disrupted academic year and the prospect of very little Christmas cheer for all those who are unemployed. The local elections have however heralded a turning point.
In wrapping up the year’s events, Steenhuisen said there has been a “heightening of racial incidents” from Penny Sparrow‘s comments opening the year to incidents of intolerance, calls for the killing of people on university campuses, the “stomach-churning coffin incident“, talk of genocide and eradication, and a daily barrage of racial intolerance on social media platforms.
He said we must condemn these incidents, but said “what has been hard to witness though is how the utterance of any one of these single repugnant individuals is thereafter used to somehow justify the comments of the other… all the while spiralling further and further into the depths of hurtful disgrace and dishonour.
“These incidents only prove what we already know – South Africa today remains a deeply divided and unequal society, still struggling with deep scars and unhealed wounds from our painful past and policies that systematically divided our nation for far too long.”
He said, no matter what race you belong to, it’s easy to feel hard done by and excluded in SA “and you will probably be correct for different reasons… but the burden is to rise above this and work harder to be the change we want to see.” He said we can carry on down this path of deepening division and hate – pitting black against white, English against Afrikaans, Muslim against Jew and Xhosa against Zulu – but history shows us the “terrible destination of this path of division and hate…”
Steenhuisen said the challenge for all of us – regardless of party, colour or creed – is to work harder to eradicate racism.