PREMIER TSP MAKWETLA REMARKS AT THE ANC FUNDRAISING DINNER
13 AUGUST 2004
Chairperson
Honourable MEC’s
Your Excellencies, Local Mayors
Honourable councillors
Distinguished guests, friends and comrades
Introductory remarks
It gives me great pleasure to be part of this occasion, the fundraising dinner in the Enkangala region of our province.
I wish to congratulate all those who took part in organising this event, for their tireless efforts, and for ensuring that this event is truly a success.
I am sure that their objective of raising funds for a “worthy cause” will be met.
Similarly, such a gathering provides an important forum for ourselves to continue with the necessary process of engaging with individuals and stakeholders on our vision for the future of this beautiful province, Mpumalanga.
You would all be aware that this year has been marked by countless and continuing celebrations, across the length and breadth of our country, of Ten-Years of our democratic dispensation and Ten-Years of a democratically elected and ANC-led government.
In my remarks today, I wish to speak about what these ten years have meant in
terms of democracy and the expansion of political rights and economic progress
in our country. I will then reflect on the provincial experience and the
outstanding challenges that face us as a province and what we have already, as a
government, set out to do in response. In particular, I will like to touch on
the importance of social dialogue and our expectations on the role of the
business community.
Celebrating Ten Years of Democracy and Economic Progress
In the ANC’s Manifesto for the 2004 elections we have stated
that:
“Over the past ten years, after centuries of colonialism and apartheid, a new
era has dawned for South Africa. It is an era in which we have together laid the
foundation for a better life. It is an era in which we have started implementing
programmes to secure a better life for all. As we have gained experience and
strengthened our country’s unity, this has become an era in which we have
started speeding up change.”
These words capture poignantly the endeavours and commitment of the ANC-led government, during the past ten years, to the creation of a people-centered society characterised by both political freedom and economic progress.
Indeed, various commentators have noted that our country’s transition to democratic rule was in a sense miraculous and that our democratic dispensation is built on a solid constitutional foundation that is the envy of many in other parts of the world, in both developing and developed countries.
However, as our President so eloquently noted in his speech at last year’s Growth and Development Summit, “the founders of our democracy knew too well that political rights without a socio-economic foundation would be unsustainable.
They knew that a political settlement without an enduring contract among the economic role-players for growth and development would in time collapse on a foundation of sand”.
That is why, for example, we have in our Constitution a Bill of Rights that is not limited only to ‘first generation’ rights but covers also socio-economic issues, such as the right to property, workers rights and rights to social security and water, among others.
I am sure that you would all agree that we have ushered in an
era where considerable strides were made to achieve economic progress.
Many of you would be aware that we inherited an economy that had literally
ground to a halt.
According to the National Treasury’s Budget Review 2004, ours was an economy where average growth had fallen to approximately 1 per cent a year during the decade prior to 1994.
However, under the ANC-led government, economic growth has averaged 2.8 per cent annually over the past decade.
We have also seen commendable decreases in inflation and the size of the public debt. Our macroeconomic policies have earned praise even from institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Having achieved a stable macroeconomic foundation, we have been able to make concerted efforts to address poverty and inequality through a substantial redirection of public spending towards key social and economic programmes.
The resulting and notable achievements that our government has made in the past ten years, as outlined in the National Treasury’s Budget Review 2004, include the following:
At least 1.6 million houses have been built, electricity has been connected to 4 million homes or institutions, almost 3 million hectares of land has been redistributed, about 4.5 million children benefit from the Primary school nutrition programme,
the number of social grant beneficiaries has increased from 2.9 million to over 7.4 million, 700 new primary h ealth clinics have been constructed, 212 upgraded and 215 mobile clinics established.
These achievements are also reflected in our own provincial experience. Mpumalanga today is the fourth largest provincial contributor to the national economy.
Our people have also experienced a quantitative and qualitative improvement in their overall well-being over the ten past years due to improvements in the delivery of education, health, welfare, water, electricity, and other facilities by the provincial government.
Challenges facing Mpumalanga
At my inaugural address as the Premier of this province, I expressed my conviction that my predecessors had both laid a foundation from which we could together work to translate, into a concrete reality for all our people, the vision of a people-centered society characterized by both political freedom and economic progress.
We have also said that we wish to focus our energies single-mindedly on the economic growth path of our region, well aware that an improved development path would constitute an increase in our people’s freedoms. Indeed our task remains to accelerate the pace of growth and job creation and extend the scope of development and empowerment in our province.
With a growing and sustainable provincial economy we will be better positioned to ensure that we achieve the lofty goals of a people free from want, free from hunger, free from deprivation, free from ignorance, free from suppression and free from fear.
With the creation of sustainable jobs, we will not only make sure that people have a source of income but we will do much more.
As the respected Director-General of the International Labour Organisation, Juan Somavia, has told us; “Work is a source of dignity, of family stability and peace in the overall society”. His sentiments simply express what we all know to be true from our own unique life experiences.
With empowerment, we will ensure that we address the highly concentrated and unequal nature of ownership in our economy and the impact that this has on many other aspects of our society.
The evidence from many parts of world seems to show that such a high degree of inequality, and the lack of inclusivity in any economic growth path, is generally not associated with economic progress.
Ours is a province that has surprised many commentators by being among the top four fastest growing provinces between 1996 and 2002.
Yet it is a province where more than a third of the workforce are unemployed and has a workforce noted for less than average levels of education.
Ours is province that is notably rich in mineral resources, energy, arable land and areas of interest for tourists.
Yet it is also a province where close to two-thirds of our population were estimated to be poor in 1999.
I mention all this because I wish to emphasise that we need to roll-up our sleeves, and to do more, in order to tackle the challenges of high unemployment, low savings and investment, massive inequalities, and unacceptable levels of poverty in our province.
As the provincial government we have already begun to take
concrete steps, which we outlined in some detail during the opening of the first
sitting of the third session of the Mpumalanga Legislature.
We indicated that we will support the growth and development of the “First
Economy” in the province by maintaining the existing government-owned industrial
infrastructure whilst developing technoparks and incubators.
We also plan to do more to reduce the cost of doing business in Mpumalanga by paying more attention to addressing the infrastructure and skills needs of the various businesses that operate in our province.
It is our intention also to do more to promote a competitive agricultural sector in the province and, in response to the challenges of the second economy, provide more support to communities with restituted land for agriculture and individual farmers from previously disadvantaged backgrounds with little access to training, credit and marketing support.
The promotion of small farmers and small business will generate much needed employment opportunities and alleviate the scourge of poverty for hundreds of our people in the province.
The Provincial Equity Fund, which addresses issues of access to finance, is another intervention by the provincial government that will make a difference in the success or failure of many of our people’s self-employment initiatives.
The Expanded Public Works Programme will also be a key strategy to unlock the problem of joblessness in the province. We expect that not only will it improve our people’s access to livelihoods but it will also make a contribution to increasing public assets, such as roads, schools and clinics, in areas where they live.
Social dialogue and the role of business
In my address at the occasion of the Provincial Taxi Indaba, only a month ago, I indicated that our experience over the past decade has taught us that state intervention is necessary in a number of areas if we are to achieve the objectives that we outlined when we spoke of a “People’s contract to create work and fight poverty”.
Indeed, as a provincial government we have begun to respond to this call.
However, in the same address, I also reminded the audience that the “people’s contract” calls for unity of purpose and a commitment from every citizen to deal with all the challenges collectively.
I believe that the time has come for the business community
in the province to respond adequately.
Our expectations of the business community are not earth-shattering and will
certainly not adversely affect their profitability or competitiveness,
especially in the face of that well known phenomenon of globalisation.
We are calling on the business community in our province to join us in this journey we have embarked upon, to realise the vision of a people-centered society characterised by both political freedom and economic progress.
We are calling on business to join us in this journey to halve poverty and unemployment in our province by 2014.
We ask of business to take up learners as part of the learnership drive, to support our efforts to grow the provincial economy in an inclusive manner, and to become more socially responsible through investing in communities and adhering to our labour and environmental regulations.
As our President spoke to us last year, again at the occasion of the Growth and Development Summit,
“As long as the legacy of apartheid manifests itself in our society, so long shall we be challenged to find urgent and practical solutions to the poverty, underdevelopment, illiteracy, paucity of skills and jobs, and mistrust among social sphere that the system spawned. ”
As the provincial government we have begun to take the President’s call very seriously. This has seen us initiate discussions and exchanges with stakeholders from various sectors of the province, with those that could be considered part of the ‘first economy’ and those that currently fall in the’ second’ economy.
I believe that the business community in our province can contribute meaningfully to the development of a common vision on the promotion of economic growth, investment, employment and people-centered development in our Province.
Indeed, I look forward to their participation in the processes and agreements of the Provincial Economic Summit, which we announced earlier this year.
Concluding remarks
Chairperson,It has been an honour and privilege for me to address you all this evening.
I believe that together we can translate into reality our vision of a people-centered society characterised by both political freedom and economic progress.
Our province has made significant strides in the past ten years and it is my belief that, through a spirit of common purpose, we can achieve the goals of Vision 2014.
I thank you,