PREMIER MAKWETLA'S REMARKS AT THE MORAL REGENERATION YEAR END GATHERING
HELD AT NELSPRUIT RUGBY SATDIUM
We gather here tonight as members of different faith and religious communities, the young and the old; as leaders from different sections of our society, Traditional Leaders, Politicians, Professionals, Business, Labour and Spiritual Leaders.
We meet as men and women from different walks of life in our province to pray together and give thanks to the Almighty and the great spirits of our forebears.
We have converged again in numbers to mark the end of yet another year, which in spite of life's mix of pain and joy, was a source of hope in the experience of our people.
We take this moment to open our hearts to thank those among us who through their action brought relief and comfort to many weary souls in our communities; those who housed the destitute and fed the hungry; those who clothed and bathed the infirm and the terminally ill; those who cared for the destitute orphans and the abused, the many citizens of our province and our civil service who spread love in our communities.
These patriots must enjoy our admiration and must serve as examples to be emulated as we continue to work hard in building a caring –society and a better life for all.
As we witness the dying embers of the last hours of 2004, our thoughts go out to all those who lost their loved ones including those who died violently on our roads and at places of work, producing the many goods our society depends on. We will always cherish their memories.
As we stand poised to enter the New Year our joy is sadly diminished by the anxiety in many homes as a result of the treachery and controversy surrounding the matric results in Mpumalanga. The Government of the province sympathises with the hard working students and parents who had to endure this trepidation. The provincial authorities will do everything necessary to expedite the resolution of this query, so that the results are released and the culprits are brought to book. On our part as the province we vow to turn this experience into an opportunity to catapult ourselves to the forefront of excellence and competency with regard to this area of responsibility. We hope the national education authorities will assist us in this regard.
When we embarked on the road to freedom, the goal was to create a different moral society from the one we inherited. We had to do that because we realized that we could not enjoy freedom unless our society was morally conducive to that.
Since 1994 we have together worked hard to construct a society that cares. Our country - and province - is today a democratic country with a government based on the will of all the people. We have worked hard to improve the lives of our people by eradicating poverty and under-development. These priorities remain amongst the foremost goals of the Mpumalanga Government.
We have worked hard at ensuring that all our people are, and remain, exposed to education, training and skills development because we believe these are key foundations of social and economic progress, and preconditions for addressing inequality and division in society.
We will remain relentlessly focused on the goal of investing in the quality of education and promotion of work-related training opportunities, while continuing to encourage investment, addressing barriers to business development and invigorating job creation efforts.
We are single–mindedly wedded to the creation of a caring society in order to reduce pain and extend joy. We will ensure that compassion and real hope overcome greed and despair.
We must go into a New Year of hope, a New Year during which we must attain further progress.
2005 must be a year in which we double our efforts to act together, making sure that we build the kind of a province and a country that we would be proud to call our home.
The success of all these measures depends however on the cooperation and participation of all stakeholders, from the private sector to organized labour, from institutions of learning to the public servants who need to implement much of this work. It depends on the contribution that every community and every citizen makes in building a people's contract to build a better life for all South Africans.
Unless we actively embrace the good and the positive, and inculcate them in our children and their offspring, these evils that are characteristic of our past will be part of our society. As a people we must create a climate in our communities, our province and our country hostile to crime, including crimes of corrupt practice within both the public and private sectors.
We must forge, for both the future generations and us, a peaceful, productive and prosperous environment in our province. Faith and integrity must be our trusty companions on this road to progress and economic empowerment.
We must assist our people to reach those deep pools of resources, resilience and dedication and in so doing, find the key that will create a better life for all.
Let us exercise a fresh resolve and make Mpumalanga a leading province. We must seize the moment so that this generation of people of this province, and those following, can be proud of this region.
Let me wish you all, a prosperous and a fulfilling New Year.
I thank you.