"During a protest, there are always various agendas at play and then, there are certain people who come out and become violent. On many occasions, the violent takes a racial turn and that is what happened here."

"Having come here, being enslaved, then being resilient and working their way up, always being in survival mode and eventually naturalisation, getting citizenship status and getting their rights back – all this has been a long process, but a very painful one."

"There is no way that our community can be blamed for favouritism. We supported the leader that the party put up."

"It is within our shoulders as leaders gathered here that the goals we have set ourselves as outlined in our manifesto will be apprehended if we could set aside our differences and work in unity as partners within our scope of mandates."

"Whenever there was a crisis in power in South Africa, one of the communities that has always got the brunt of violence has been the Indian community. Because we have been soft targets believing in non-violence. Therefore, we have become vulnerable targets to perpetrators."

"The thing is to take that passion, intellectualize it and make it work for you. Make it useful for your community,"

"The diplomat also believes it is important to communicate with Africa’s youth in order to secure the continent’s future."

"It’s all about communication. If you don’t talk, then you cannot understand anything about anybody,”"

"In our democracy, the Indian community has always held a sway vote that every party has been clamouring for. They know that the Indian community has that power, any which way, and they can become powerful if they get the Indian vote bank."

"the need to make sure young people who feel despondent, voiceless and hopeless understand that politicians care about them."

"On the surface, ours was an amicable conversation, but I could feel the latent anger in his seven-page hand-written let.”"

"It’s wonderful to have relationships with other countries, but we need to say ‘African solutions for African problems’, not ‘Western solutions for African problems’."

"We are deeply concerned about the deterioration of human settlements programmes in the Gauteng metros. Specifically, the City of Tshwane continues to underperform in human settlements grants. In the past three financial years, the City continued to forfeit unspent funds to the Revenue Fund."

"“A nation that does not care about its youth does not deserve its future"

"I left feeling somewhat uneasy about his defensive tone and his choice of words."

"there is nothing wrong with young people having extreme views and holding them with passion.”"

"In order to be a responsible leader, we have to understand all of this in context. Politically, today, in our legislature, I apologised if any action of any Indian person was looked at as racism or discriminatory."

"I was deeply averse to engaging in war-like posturing with ANC colleagues whose intentions and motivations were similar to my mine — although we held widely divergent views on how best to achieve our common goals,”"

"It would mean unquestioning loyalty and assumed support for his positions in debates and internal caucus votes — something I was not able to give at all times"

"“It was not only that the tone of South African politics had altered and become ever more acrimonious, but that I could not ignore how ill at ease I felt in representing the DA."

"every single strategy meeting continued to be held in the same cloistered confines of white male comfort."

"we celebrate our absolute right to property enshrined in our constitution, we are mindful of the Palestinian people in the struggle for their right to live and prosper in the land of their birth. We commend our government and the people of South Africa for taking resolute action in support of the Palestinian cause."

"to improve efficiencies in responding to disasters, human settlements emergencies response has been centralised at the national department, including policy changes that emphasize use of alternative building technologies to respond to disasters in rural areas."

"As this department, we can boast of having established a women in Human Settlements Task Team which comprises of women stakeholders within the human settlements value chain."

"I used to work so hard for [the ANC] here in Wonderkop. I helped at the community centre where people came with their disputes and problems and we would sort them out. Election time I was on the front line, giving my time and sleep,”"

"I know I am nothing but I will do good in Parliament. Even without an education, I know what people on the ground go through every day. I went through that all my life.”"

"I don’t know how it happened but I know that the community voted for me. I had won the area but on the day I was going to sign at the mayor’s office I couldn’t.”"

"Women have always been at the centre of the revolution. Let us honour them, and place them in the place they deserve in history"

"He was so arrogant that he pointed me with fingers and said he is the station commander, and I am going to do what he says; he got his ways of doing things, and I am going to listen to him"

"I live in a house with men, so for me, it's the sensitivity and caring element. In a man's world, you do whatever needs to be done, but women often have a different approach. We look for solutions and try to ease conflicts. That's what I intend to bring to my new role"

"You look at the crime history of these stations, and we try to go in and zoom in to what could be the challenges that make the services of SAPS so imperfect that even the communities lose trust in SAPS. And this is what you get"

"I told him that I was there as an individual with the responsibility and mandate to do oversight in entities of government, and he still refused"

"Electing the speaker was easy, because we would support the ANC, but then the next test was, are they going to support me? Because they've never supported any other party. You’re overwhelmed because you don’t know. And it took long, I was only elected that night, a bit of an unreal moment"

"I want to contribute to the orderly functioning of Parliament and ensure decisions are made in a reasonable time. I aim to make Parliament a place where people can be heard"

"I want Parliament to be a place where people can voice their concerns, a place where they can be heard"

"As I am getting a briefing, she gets a call to say you must stop that briefing and you must not allow her in the premises; that’s an instruction from the province"

"Elections are at the heart of democracy to make them free and fair, it’s a body that has to have the highest ethical standards, impartial, fair… it needs the means it needs transparency and it needs to ensure that what it does have resonance"

"Challenges with regard to participation and that’s very much in terms of youth. Secondly, there’s a big trust deficit generally in all state institutions and unfortunately, the Commission does not escape that and thirdly, the contestation, the emotion that is part of that contestation is a lot sharper. So because of those three things, the Commission has to take on board things that it may not have had to prioritise in the same way historically"

"I think it's extremely good for democracy. The ANC's control of everything wasn't good for democracy or the ANC itself. Now, with different parties holding committee chairs, there's better accountability. It's a win-win for everyone—for the ANC, for the country, and for the voters"

"South Africa is no different. Standing head and shoulders as a fearless force for liberation, Mama Winnie Mandela remains an inspiring tale of a woman who, during the most conservative of eras, confronted male Afrikaner soldiers and inspired military men and youth to fight for freedom"

"I think our upbringing was very coloured by my parents' history, in particular my mother. She was somebody who, at the age of 16, was taken into the ghettos and, subsequently, the concentration camps. She spent most of her time in a camp in Poland"

"Her mother died in her arms, her sister died in her arms, her brother was executed, and she was dislocated from her father. The whole trauma of that, I think, was ever-present. So much of her make-up, I believe, was coloured by that"

"Intelligence training involved a lot of stuff to do with underground work, and then I went on a specialised course in Cuba to train on various aspects of perfecting disguises and on the construction of dead letter boxes"

"True equality means women having the right to make decisions about their own lives—where they want to live, what they want to do, whether they want children or not"

"Even in the midst of the current financial crisis, it is the responsibility of developed countries to take the lead in combating climate change, not least through funding and technology transfer to developing countries."

"As you would appreciate our situation in the continent is unique because we contribute about 2% of the 3,8% of emissions that Africa contributes. Consequently we have adopted a balanced approach looking at adaptation and mitigation"

"As a country that relies heavily on fossil fuels approximately 80 percent of our electricity is generated from coal. We adopted an energy mix policy, fossil and renewable energy. We have started implementing this policy but the biggest challenge is to produce renewable technology in South Africa."

"t’s just the tip of the iceberg. Real equal rights are still lacking for women on the ground. We still have a patriarchal system, as seen in gender-based violence and the burdens women carry as providers and carers"

"There was a group of us; we were all prepared for different reasons and different things. I was the only one from that group who was part of the contingent that eventually got settled into the country and then joined up with Operation Vula"

"We think that this is another measure that will overburden developing countries. We believe that the real debate for Copenhagen is mainly on two issues; firstly the targets for reductions and secondly, the mechanisms to fund climate change programmes."