Address of the Premier of Mpumalanga, Thabang Makwetla, at the Second Sitting of the Third Democratic Mpumalanga Provincial House of Traditional Leaders

Nelspruit 10 March 2006

Honourable Chairperson of the House,

Esteemed Majesties, the Kings and Chiefs of our people,

Impiyezintombi Mzimela, National Chairperson,

Honourable Members of the House,

Bayete! Zingonyama naMakhosi aseMpumalanga

Once again we are privileged to stand before you, to join this august body as it commences yet another year of work to take our province forward, the second sitting of the Third Democratic Mpumalanga Provincial House of Traditional Leaders.

Chairperson, allow me on behalf of government, to salute all our chiefs for the valuable work and cooperation they continue to display in the quest to improve the lot of the previously marginalised and neglected rural communities of our province.

Honourable Members, on this occasion last year, we joined this province in mourning the untimely passing on of the King of AmaNdebele wakwa Ndzundza, King Mayisha III, a week before. Almost in challenge to the timeless wisdom that lightning does not strike twice in one place, we again within a month mourned yet another death in the Ndzundza Royal family, with the death of Prince Senzangakhona James Mahlangu, the Chief of isigodlo sakwa Ndzundza Mabusa, who was himself once the Director of Traditional Affairs in the Premier's Office in the province. To convey our words of sympathy to the constituency of traditional leadership in the province from this platform, we must pay tribute to his life by recognising that he was among the trail-blazers of patriotic leadership among our traditional leaders to hail from this region in the contemporary period. His legacy within AmaNdebele wakwa Ndzundza must live on. May I also take this opportunity to convey our sincere sympathies to the Royal family of Chief K W Mahlangu.

Chairperson, it could not be that our quest to reconstruct the memory of who the people of this region are, we would succeed without foregrounding our traditional communities and the leadership that is gathered here today. This leadership and communities profile not only our cultural diversity as a province, but most importantly our history, pre-colonial and the resistance to colonialisation. This history is our collective story, both the colonised and the colonisers' descendants, and must be told without accentuating sentiments about which side of this story we come from. To do so will be missing the point.

As Professor Peter Delius argues in the researched heritage report, while it is true that the relationships between the Boers and African Chiefdoms were deeply conflictual and often violent, it is not the complete story. There is evidence in abundance of profound patterns of inter-dependence which many historians have shied from. To understand our heritage in perspective also means that we must highlight that, “Boers depended on Africans for their understanding of the problems and possibilities of local environments and traded with them for much of their grain supplies. White hunters relied heavily on black hunters in order to exploit game in disease-ridden regions. Some Boers, faced with the perennial human hazards of death and disease, turned to African herbalists and diviners for help and some probably also sought to harness the malevolent power of witchcraft for their own ends. In the early years of settlement communities such as the Buys Volk, which were shaped by inter-marriage and thorough going forms of cultural fusion, were a critical component of frontier settler society. Their existence also reminds us that diverse forms of inter-racial sexual relationships, ranging from the coercive to the consensual, formed important undercurrents in this world.”

Honourable Chairperson, our traditional leaders and communities are renowned for being the repositors of the lingering memory of the glorious story of valour in the resistance wars to colonialism, including the very last of these wars, the ‘Bambata Rebellion', whose centenary we celebrate this year.

However, as Professor Peter Delius explains, there is also a more complex dimension to this history, which is that, “Boer military power was always buttressed by black clients and allies and in several instances they were unable to prevail without calling on the military capacity of powerful African Kingdoms (they were allied to). This fact points to a further reality, which was that race was far from being the determining factor in patterns of political alliance. Boers made alliances with some African societies against others. (The fact of the divided resistance to colonialisation by African Kingdoms is a common theme in our history.) Equally important, the history of the region shows that African leaders saw white settlers as simply one of a number of threats that they had to counter, and quite often regarded other African societies as more serious rivals and a greater source of danger to them.”

Chairperson, honourable Members, we raise these observations here, indeed to sponsor a lively debate around our heritage, because it is only from the interrogation of this factual history that the challenge of nation-building can be abetted. It is only from a common understanding of our journey through history, that we can appreciate why we must be united in our diversity.

As government we are committed to continue forging closer developmental relations with you as traditional leaders, your institutions and your people in order to ensure that the people in your areas also have the possibility to participate in the processes of socio-economic development to which we are all committed. We are all agreed that government, at whatever level, is there to serve the needs and aspirations of our people.

All of us - yourselves as leaders by birthright and ourselves as elected representatives - should regard ourselves as “servants” charged with looking after the welfare and best interests of the people who have placed their trust in us.

We are sure that you are quite aware of the high premium that this government places on the institution of traditional leadership and the high regard that we have for your contribution to society. We do so because of our conviction that as traditional leaders you have a critical role to play in our integrated rural development programme.

Chairperson, it is for this reason that we are excited by the continuing work of the Commission of Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims. This Commission, which deals with disputes that have torn apart many royal families for many years, must once and for all settle disputes of lineage and succession. The commission has already visited the Nkangala Region to deal with the issue of a Kingship. We are awaiting the commission's decision on the matter. Let me call upon the communities and royal families to give all the necessary support to members of the commission.

Chairperson, Honourable Members, on the 14 th of December, 2005, I assented to the Mpumalanga Traditional Leadership and Governance Bill, 2005, and the Mpumalanga Provincial House and Local Houses of Traditional Leaders Bill, 2005.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank all those who participated in the process towards the enactment of these Bills, in particular Members of this House.

These two pieces of legislation will cement the rehabilitation and transformation of the institution of traditional leadership, and also round off the evolution of the new system of local government in those areas where traditional communities still exist.

Honourable Members, after broad consultation it has been agreed that these two acts be brought into operation on the 1 st of April 2006, to allow for work around challenges which were not sufficiently provided for, including among others, procedures to be followed in electing the other 40% of members of traditional councils who must come from ordinary residents, as stipulated by law. This national intervention was thought to be necessary to also allow other provinces to benefit from the kwaZulu-Natal pilot. Quite evidently there is now an appreciation of a need for the MEC to promulgate regulations that will provide guidelines on several challenges pertaining to the rolling out of these Acts.

As a result of this intervention by DPLG, it has been agreed that all provinces must have the proposed Traditional Councils in place by the end of July 2006, and the Traditional Local Houses in place by the end of September 2006.

In order to ensure that the Traditional Councils are capacitated to successfully execute their new duties and functions, capacity building programmes will be rolled out from April 2006. The Department of Local Government and Housing has set aside an amount of R1million for this purpose.

An amount of R2,3 million has been earmarked for logistical support to traditional councils for the performance of their duties.

R6,7 million has been set aside for salaries and benefits of traditional leaders, and a budget for infrastructure such as offices is still being negotiated.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Department of Local Government and Housing has started with Public hearings on the Ingoma Bill. Let me appeal to the aMakhosi to encourage their communities to attend these hearings and make inputs.

Chairperson, the Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leaders is the only one in the country that has a committee that deals specifically with issues of Women, Youth and children. Your participation in the sixteen days of activism of no violence against Women and children campaign, is laudable. Let us remember that we cannot honestly say our democracy is complete if we still abuse our spouses and our children and if we do not give the necessary support to our youth. The future that we are building now is not ours but belongs to our children.

MORAL REGENERATION

Traditional Leaders should continue playing a role in the moral regeneration movement. We cannot afford to have a community that is degenerating in morals, especially amongst our youth. We have a responsibility as parents and as leaders to make sure that we do not fail our children by not guiding them through the turbulence of their youthful lives. We have to politely teach them about the importance of respect, especially self-respect and the respect of others. We cannot abdicate our responsibilities as leaders and as parents.

Chairperson, as Government we have always contended that the bulk of responsibility for the delivery of services must reside at the level of local government. It is this sphere of government, which is the closest to our communities on the ground and, thus has the duty to deliver such services that directly affect the citizenry in their daily lives.

Water, electricity, roads, sanitation and refuse removal are services that can make an immediate and positive impact on the lives of our people. This is why local government is so important and all of us have a duty to support the relevant structures in performing their functions.

Government is determined to make local government work better. We have identified a number of municipalities that need intense, hands-on support, which is why we assembled and deployed high-calibre teams to work with municipalities to tackle the problems they face. As government we will ensure more resources and trained personnel are provided for local government. Audits are being conducted of the skills that each municipality needs, and a programme will be introduced to train councillors and staff, and to employ more competent managers and technicians. I need to add that in the past five years local governments have achieved much in rolling back decades of neglect.

The results of last week's elections, is a clear indication that the people have chosen to be an active part in government's plan to make local government work better for all South Africans. Because of the experience government has gained, and because of our achievements, we have been able to set practical and realisable targets in meeting the basic needs of our people. We stand by our commitment to ensure that no community will still be using the bucket system for sanitation by 2007; that all communities will have access to clean water and decent sanitation by 2010; and that all houses will have access to electricity by 2012. That is a promise we will keep.

It is important that we all become agents of change and adopt the principled position that we shall serve the people. In our discussions we must frankly and honestly talk about the enormous progress we have achieved over the last 11 years. But we must also acknowledge that we will still have to do a great deal of work before we succeed to eradicate poverty, unemployment, homelessness, disease, ignorance, crime and under-development in our communities.

On behalf of the government and people of Mpumalanga I wish you a fruitful session and declare the Second Sitting of the Third Democratic Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leaders open.

I thank you.