‘Lazy people should be booted out’: Pandor tells Premier Lesufi

As the country grapples with economic and service delivery  challenges, former International Relations minister Naledi Pandor said people who are lazy to change the conditions of South Africa must be “booted out of government.”

Pandor was speaking during a Special House Sitting of the Gauteng Legislature on Tuesday.

Special House Sitting

The special sitting was convened by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi to honour the two outstanding women, Pandor and Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for their contribution to South Africa’s democracy.

Pandor and Dlamini-Zuma were afforded an opportunity to address the House in accordance with the Standing Rules of the Legislature.

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Pandor on ‘lazy people’ and ‘those who work hard ‘

Pandor expressed her gratitude to the Gauteng Legislature for acknowledging her contribution to shaping the country’s democracy including fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people.

The former minister said she believed that one of the matters that must be attended to is to ensure that officials work hard to make South Africa better.

“I think there are a lot of lazy people who are in very powerful positions. Maybe premier, what you need to do is every morning, at around quarter to eight, you phone everybody and find out where they are.  You should have a special kind of cellphone with a particular GPS component that can tell you how to geolocate all those who should be in their department at a particular time.

“Our legacy of disadvantage is huge as South Africa, and if we have people who are lazy, who cannot attend to the task, we are going to take centuries to change our condition. So I do say, let us ensure that we have people who work hard, and those who work hard must be rewarded, and the lazy people should be booted out because we don’t need them in our society,” Pandor said.

Dlamini-Zuma on truth and discipline

Dlamini-Zuma said government must always think about the people, especially the poor when they make decisions and policies.

“How is this decision going to affect them? Is it going to make their lives better, create a better life for them, or is it going to make it difficult?

“Stand for the truth, even if you have to stand alone, stand for it. Discipline? if you are not disciplined, there’s nothing you can achieve,” Dlamini-Zuma said.

During the sitting, the former members of the cabinet also shared their respective journeys in legislation.

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