PREMIER TSP MAKWETLA 'S RESPONSE TOTHE DEBATE ON STATE OF THE
PROVINCE ADDRESS
Tuesday 8 June 2004
Honourable Speaker, colleagues, and Honourable Members of this House, first let me express my deep appreciation for the quite sincere support that was demonstrated … that we isolated in our state of the province address, support that came from all members across the board and from different party affiliations.
Honourable Members, there is a development in our country for which we might at times not express full appreciation. The recent elections from which we have just emerged have, in a very significant way, served as a landmark in the process of the evolving internal cohesion of South African society as a country and as a nation. I think that the warm and sincere support for the priorities of Government which we have experienced this afternoon is a manifestation of that process.
It is a process which we would all agree that there would be instances during which some of us as individuals would actually not conform or rather not live up to the direction in which things are moving. At some level not only could it be individuals alone, but also it could be institutions which may themselves at certain stages or landmarks in this process become victims of this growing cohesion in South Africa, because this is a process that is beyond us as individuals and as institutions.
Across history nations of the world have experienced this. The cohesion of any nation is never at the same level on all pages and chapters of its history. In South Africa the understanding of many of us is that what has happened is that we have actually removed the superstructure that was arresting the development of South Africa as a country into one cohesive unit.
Having said that, Honourable Speaker, let me also make the point that one of
the important matters that were raised this afternoon which relate to this
question of the growing cohesion within South African society as a country and
as a nation is the place and role of the institution of traditional leadership.
As we have said, as the leadership in this province we are going to be called
upon in the months ahead to bring our leadership to bear on how we actually deal
with this matter in a very comprehensive way, and in a manner which takes our
country and nation forward, because, indeed, there are parts of the province in
which the institution of traditional leadership is very much part of the way of
life in our communities.
We must find a way of integrating it into our system of local government in such a way that it plays a role that is forward-looking and futuristic, and which is more than just that of preserving and protecting and of being the guardian of where we come from with regard to our culture and traditions.
What that implies for those who are privileged to be at the leadership of this institution is that they have to appreciate, the same way all of us who are leaders do, in this province and across our country, the burden of the challenge to take the country from where it was, to being a very modern and advanced nation which compares favourably with other nations of the world. They cannot position themselves in a manner which, after the process has been concluded, would cause them to consider themselves victims of a perspective that was imposed on them.
They themselves have got to be leaders who understand and have the full grasp of the transformation that our nation is aspiring for. The perspective has to reside with them. They should actually be among the best of our forward-looking and futuristic leaders, even better than some of us who are holding public office. This is the challenge that we need to address as part of those aspects that are connected with the growing cohesiveness of South Africa as we move into the future. And I am raising this matter here at the level of us as a provincial entity and as a provincial administration with regard to the challenges that we face. Madam Speaker, we will have to work day and night - there is no doubt about that - to break the back of joblessness, as Honourable Members have argued here.
We have to do that not only to provide people with opportunities to earn an income, but also, as Members have accurately captured the challenge, because the problem of dealing with poverty in the context of our province, which is a rural province, relates to bringing normality in many communities which, in their very history and in their origin, have been treated by the policies of old as reserves for labour from where people were being sourced to go and work in order to provide labour elsewhere.
Working where they live and living with their families have never been the way of life in these communities. Our people have forever been sojourners.
Providing jobs through the Expanded Public Works Programme does not only provide income, but also provides rehabilitation of communities. What it means is that the problem of that 14-year old girl-child whom I encountered during the election campaign in Cypress and who was left alone at home to look after her two siblings, and whose parents had gone to Johannesburg for the entire year and would only come intermittently, perhaps after six months, would be addressed.
That syndrome has to be tackled, because when you provide these jobs through the Public Expanded Works Programme, then the mother can afford to come back home and get some job opportunity and the father can also be able to come back and get a job at home. For the first time the family would be able to live like a proper family in a way normal families are supposed to live. If that does not happen, we will never be able to deal with many of the maladies or ills confronting our communities in the province.
The Education Department, in terms of the challenges that it is confronted with, may not succeed in dealing with that situation, because that little girl-child who at 14 is the head of a household, who has to put food in front of her siblings and who is left alone for a whole six months cannot be expected at the same time to take advantage of opportunities that the Department of Education is creating for her in order to develop her talents to the full - she cannot. There is no one to guide her and no one to protect her against so many other pressures.
When the education system fails to live up to expectations, we may think that it is because teachers are not teaching, and we may think it is because we are not putting in enough resources, whereas the problem may actually be elsewhere. Perhaps it may be because we have this kind of student whom we expect to perform well in her studies, while she is a child and a parent at the same time.
Madam Speaker, I agree with Members that we must not remove focus from target groups within our communities. Here I am referring to sections of our communities who need to be given extra support and care - the youth, women, the disabled and the aged. We cannot move focus away from these groups, and at the same time be satisfied as the leadership that we are building a caring society and that we are building a caring nation.
The comments made here about our obligations to raise the quality of life of our womenfolk, particularly in this province, because a large part of our province is rural. We cannot overlook the challenges we need to tackle in order to improve the quality of life of our womenfolk.
Similarly, addressing the historical backlog we have with regard to providing the youth constituency, not only in our province, but also across our country, cannot be overemphasised. If we do not tackle it sufficiently by making sure that information regarding support for their education programmes is adequate, and if we do not ensure those support programmes with regard to economic integration of the youth while they are growing up, whether by placing them in jobs or giving them funds to start their own entrepreneurial operations, the problem of joblessness and the problem of poverty will be a recurring factor in our society. We need to address that problem.
Madam Speaker the Government of the province, I believe, has not misplaced priorities with regard to the appeal to rename many things that today still carry names that do not assist the process that I was talking about of building cohesion within South Africa as a nation and as a country.
There are certain things that we, unfortunately, would never be able to quantify in monetary terms, but I have no doubt that there are facilities and entities that carry names which continue to keep in place a very disjointed psyche amongst ourselves as South Africans, things that make us see ourselves as belonging together at one moment, and at the next moment not belonging together. We have to make sure that we remove all of those things – we have to remove them.
I know that the exercise is in some respects going to be quite challenging, and that is why I would actually appeal to the Members of this House to play their leadership role in assisting in that process.
There are aspects of the renaming process which are going to be very simple and straightforward. There will obviously be no contest when we say a place name such as Kaffirskraal should go, and there will be no contest with regard places such as Katanga’s Kraal, Betty’s Goed or some such name – there will be no contest about that. There will also be no difficulties in saying, for instance, this huge village which is monocultural - you only have Africans – and the people know the area as Notlelo, but then somebody says it is Skilpadfontein, when there are no other language groups which live in that place, there will be no contest there. We will agree as to why do we want to use a name drawn from a language or a community that is not even live here. There will be no contest.
However, there are going to be areas where there will clearly be divergent views about what needs to happen there, and that is where, I believe, the political leadership of this province across parties - members of this House - should bring their influence to bear in order to guide this process. I do not believe that that a matter we should ran away from, because once we have tackled it, the value thereof will go a very, very long way in assisting the development of a South African nationhood.
The disjointedness in our psyche will be overcome if we, among other things, tackle a problem such as this one. And I do not think we have our priorities upside down, considering that to date over a period of ten years, some of the reasons which were advanced are the same as those put forward by the Honourable Member across the floor when he said: Where do we put in money or what are the most pressing issues? Precisely because of the distance travelled from where we were in 1994 to where we are now, I feel this has become an omission.
Madam Speaker, the problem of safety and security cannot be treated lightly by the administration. In instances where we come across as guilty of that offence, it would be appropriately in order for this House to give us a roasting, because we cannot talk of a better life if people are not safe and secure. We cannot talk of a better quality of life for our people here in the province, and of cause across the country, under conditions where none of us feel safe.
It does not matter whether you are on a farm and whether you are a tourist or you are in the township, in a taxi or anywhere, none of us feel safe. What it means is that the impact of this insecure environment, I believe, has a way, in one way or another, of subtracting from the capacity with which we must actually be working as a country and as a people.
So it is important that security is put at the centre of the comfort we are
building for our people. This should be done in a manner that does not seek to
give some communities a better treatment than others. We must do it in such a
manner that all of our communities, regardless of where they are, feel that the
state or the government is concerned about their wellbeing with regard to the
question of security.
Madam Speaker, once again let me say that these priorities, as Honourable
Member Marneweck has said, require that we continuously work on our plan. What
this means is that we must have adequate monitoring and evaluation of progress
with regard to implementation around these matters. We are happy in that
respect, not only is that the responsibility of the administration, but also
that that mandate lies with this Honourable House. I thank you very much
(Applause).