INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY PREMIER SP MAKWETLA
(Nelspruit High School Stadium Friday 30 April 2004 )
Justice Hatzenberg
National Ministers and Deputy Ministers present here today
Honourable Members of Parliament
Honourable members of the Mpumalanga Legislature
Your Excellencies Ambassadors and High Commissioners
Religious leaders
Honourable mayors and councillors
Compatriots, Comrades and Friends
THE city of Nelspruit is today extremely honoured and excited to host, in addition to the renown regular tourists, the many warm and resilient citizens of this region of our country; from Nkomazi in the east to Kungwini in the west; from Seme in the south to greater Tubatse in the north.
We are inspired too by the gathering here today of South Africans, countrymen, from beyond our province, many of whom represent the spirit of our people to triumph in the quest for the rebirth of our land and a better life for all our people.
Welcome to the land of Soshangane, Simkhulu and Mswati, the land of Dinkwanyana wa bo Sekhukhune and Bapulana ba Maripe; the land of Bakgatla baga Moche and barolong ba Lefifi, the land of the descendants of Musi.
We welcome you to the home of the colonial warrior, Piet Retief, the home of the first gold towns of South Africa, the home of Barberton Prison and the notorious Bethal Potato farms of the highveld.
Welcome to the home of the biggest centre for literacy and numeracy in 1870 Transvaal, Botshabelo. Welcome to the home of our one and only Kruger National Park. Welcome to the pristine and scenic hills and gorges of Waterval Boven, Pilgrims Rest and Graskop.
Welcome to South Africa's energy province, welcome to the home of Sasol and the coal city of Witbank. Welcome to the home of Sappi and Columbus stainless steel.
Welcome to the home of Alex “Excellent” Mabuza, Don Mashabela and Junior Ngobe. Welcome to the home of Ray “Chikapa” Phiri and Stimela. Welcome to the home of Kori Moraba and Anthony “Blue Jaguar” Morodi,
Welcome to the home of Josiah Tugwana and David “Going-Up” Nyathi.
Welcome to the home of the fierce fighting spirit of Chief Ampie Mayisa and the lion of the east, Comrade Gert Sibande.
This heritage is ours as much as it is yours.
We have rendezvoud here today as the people of the province of Mpumalanga with all our well-wishers, to mark the common enactment of yet another chapter in a heroic effort to free many people from poverty, hunger, ignorance and diseases. A chapter to mark the ongoing effort to conquer rural oppression by eliminating the urban-rural dichotomy. The challenge to house the rural poor, to provide them with clean drinking water, telephones and sanitation.
We are here today to celebrate the continuation of the project to change the face of our countryside by constructing desperately needed roads, schools, community halls libraries, clinics an playing fields.
All this we do in the believe that future generations of our communities in the countryside can enjoy the same cultural life as those who live in the cities. Because it is not prescribed anywhere that the countryside shall always be rural.
In this context, allow me to pay tribute to my predecessors Comrade Mathew Phosa, the first Premier of Mpumalanga and the outgoing Premier Comrade Ndaweni Mahlangu, for the firm foundation they have laid for our advance.
We can now focus our energies single-mindedly on the economic growth path of our region because the trailblazers who were led by comrade Mathew Phosa succeeded in integrating and rationalising the numerous administrations which existed in this region into one, in order to deliver a better life.
It is my belief that we can fly now that comrade NJ Mahlangu has fixed the financial nightmare, which threatened to ruin all our dream plans to deliver a better life.
On April 24 the people of Mpumalanga in their thousands enthusiastically went to the polls and returned the ANC in power with an even bigger majority.
While this was an acknowledgement of these achievements and others, it was also an expression of confidence and hope that only the ANC can.
This legendary believe in the ANC among our people is inspired by their own experience and hardships.
It is a believe that only this government can transform their RDP houses in Roossenekall from empty halls without furniture, where people use upturned empty tins to sit on, into habitable homes by providing them with income.
The overwhelming mandate of April 14 is born by the believe that we will minimise the poor performance of some of our schools in the rural areas by getting parents not to abandon children by themselves in the rural areas in their desperate search for work. The Public Works Programme must create job opportunities in people's own localities.
Over the next five years we must sponsor a vigorous economic dialogue in order to hone the economic development strategy of our province. Through interaction with all stakeholders we must evolve a popular vision for our province in order to create work and fight poverty - the only sustainable way.
To fight poverty as a province we must not only target areas of former bantustans. It is also critical that we comprehensively deal with the youth problem. We have to increase access to learnership programmes and the SETAS.
We must also ensure that those who wish to start and sustain their small businesses, including youth and women, have access to credit, through dedicated funding to support micro-loan financing, through further reforms to existing support agencies and through changes being introduced in the financial system and institutions.
In order to half poverty by 2014 Mpumalanga's multi-pronged strategy will aggressively include a more active involvement with and support for communities with restituted land for agriculture In this regard municipalities as a third tier of government, cannot continue as passive observers as if the land restitution policy is extraneous to that of their won policies. The new comprehensive agricultural support programme of the agriculture department must be commended.
Countrymen, compatriots, the overwhelming mandate of the ANC in Mpumalanga enjoins us to be intolerant of those among us who display weaknesses that are incompatible with revolutionary virtues.
To those with a proper grasp of the mission of our transformation, the criminality of stealing even a needle from the masses is repugnant as Amilcar Cabral insisted. Corruption and greed are formidable enemies of change and development. They have a real potential of turning our dreams into ashes,
The overwhelming mandate of April 14 demands that we must work even harder to improve the conditions of life of those on the farms. We must not only root out farm atrocities, but must make a concerted effort to modernise this sector by among others addressing the labour conditions of those working on the farms. To this end the partnership between government and the employers must be enhanced to deal with short term and long term challenges.
We must improve the security of all South Africans, and make life more and more difficult for criminals as well as crooks in private companies and government structures who steal and cheat.
We must build a healthier nation with programmes to defeat malnutrition, TB, malaria and other diseases and turn the tide against HIV and AIDS.
We have as South Africans and as people in Mpumalanga made progress in building a caring society by working together to turn our ideals into practical reality. In the spirit of a people's contract we must continue to work towards bringing all deserving cases into our social security grant system.
Each one of us has a role to play in partnership with government in the fight to achieve a better life for all. Together with the people we can do more, better and faster.
To this end it is imperative that we must nurture and cultivate output-driven institutionalised partnerships in all areas of government to bolster delivery. We will only realise our goals if we play as a team.
Working with you in a People's Contract to Create Work and Fight Poverty, we are confident of success.
It is our belief that Mpumalanga has a firm foundation to realise a leap in our journey towards a region and a country where the cultural life of our people – material and otherwise – will meet the expectations of our people. Let us all draw inspiration from the Chinese idiom that a journey of a thousand miles starts with one small step.
I THANK YOU