PREMIER'S ADDRESS
The Mayor of Witbank
Her Worship Grace Castle
NAFOC President Mr Steve Skosana
FABOOS President Mr Cyril Gwala
SALTA President Mr Churchill Mrasi
Meneer J de Beer van die Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut
SACOB's Mr Anton Merkofter
Mr Mathiala from the African Farmers Agriculture Development Forum.
Distinguished business leaders
VIP guests
Ladies and gentleme.
A few months after the election that ushered in a new democratic government, it is most gratifying to be able to address such a galaxy of leaders of business and labour.
Your kindness in hosting this dinner in my honour and to congratulate us as government is heartening and most appreciated. You are not just honouring Mahlangu as an individual but you are rather confirming your belief in democracy.
Like millions of South Africans, who spoke unequivocally on June 2, you reaffirm your confidence in the ability of the African National Congress in leading this country into the new millennium.
There is a special significance in this event which allows me to take the mantle as Premier of Mpumalanga and say to all here today that together: as business, government, labour and civil society, we will be able to create a better life for all.
Amongst you are leaders of our corporate world to whom I threw the gauntlet a few days ago in Nelspruit to contribute directly towards meeting urgent and immediate basic needs of some of our most disadvantaged communities.
Your response will mean new or upgraded clinics, schools and hospitals for hundreds of thousands who would otherwise have to wait for the effects of longer-term programmes to reach them.
Amongst you are members of the Job Creation Trust set up by organised labour to mobilise resources amongst employed workers and business to help fund the creation of jobs for our fellow citizens who are unemployed.
Those to whom democracy has brought workers' rights have
responded by affirming in the most practical way their responsibility for the
well being of the nation as a whole.
Amongst you are members of the Business Trust, responsible for the initiative
by business to mobilise resources and guide their use for job creation and
skills development, in partnership with government. Here we see a direct and
organised engagement of the private sector in social transformation.
In short, this gathering reflects the organised involvement
in reconstruction and job-creation of the two principal forces in our society.
Locked until only a few years ago in an unremitting conflict they have been
liberated to work together to create a society which reflects the fact that we
are one people with one destiny.
Many in the international community, seeing from afar how our society defied
the prophets of doom and their predictions of endless conflict, have spoken of a
miracle.
You, who have been closely involved in the transition as it affected the economy, will know that it has been the product of human decisions.
There has had to be a series of often-difficult compromises that allow each constituency to pursue its specific interests within a framework that is shaped by the interests of the nation as a whole. The establishment of NEDLAC; the Jobs Summit; and the initiatives, which this gathering represents, are some of the landmarks of the process.
Amongst other things this has brought stability to our country and created conditions for progress that is quite remarkable, considering the odds against which we had to work. Without the preparation required for governing a modern economy, our first democratic government has brought about a quiet revolution in our institutions and laws.
We have begun the delivery of services to millions of people and turned our economy from stagnation towards a path of sustained growth based on sound foundations.
It is not necessary in such a gathering to lay out the
details of these changes. Nor is it necessary to state that proud as we may be
of the progress that has been made, we face far greater challenges. The projects
for job-creation and reconstruction have made a good start.
But compared with the need and the potential, there is no reason that what has
so far been done should not be dwarfed by what lies ahead in the next five yearn
of government under a new generation of leaders.
I assume my responsibilities as Premier fully confident that
there is hope for our economy; that there is hope for South Africa- The future
cannot be brighter.
I am pleased to be among you today.
We know that most of you are worried about; the relationship between business and government; economic growth in the province, Crime and Job Creation.
The Mpumalanga Provincial Government is well aware of the difficulties and challenges, which confront business. We are well aware that it is upon us also as the state to create necessary conditions, which in turn will open up the economy for the participation of business.
We are aware that amongst you the are established business minds of profound credentials and to the extent that we as government must form strategic partnerships with those, we are fully committed.
This is an appeal to you ladies and gentlemen:
Let us develop small businesses. This sector of the economy has been identified as one of the pivotal points in developing our economy. But small business will not flourish if it remains with no access to finance.
What also concerns us is that there are such few women and the disabled in business. Let us try and address that one.
I think what should distinguish us from the rest, is our social duty to the historically disempowered.
Both government and you as business - particularly black business - must take initiatives to empower all sections of our communities to start their business ventures. It is us who must show even those already established in the economic mainstream that we are committed to labour standards and basic rights of working people.
There is always a danger, particularly in the context of the domination of our economy by some monopolies, that emerging black business could seek to gain their competitive advantage through cheap labour and bad working conditions. This is the path which emerging business has taken in some parts of the developing world. We must show maturity in this regard.
We must know that this form of capital accumulation is in fact encouraged by some sectors of big business, which see opportunities to lower its costs by closing down certain activities and sub-contracting to sweat shops, which they have a cosy relationship with. We must not allow that trend.
If we are not careful, such economic conduct results in large-scale retrenchments and protracted conflict.
What business should do, is to pioneer new relationships in
the workplace.
Our responsibility lies with the full understanding that we have urban and
rural poverty and that such social problems should be tackled by all of us as a
patriotic partnership against socio-economic maladies.
But it is also upon us to take the challenge of real economic empowerment with seriousness. It is upon us to ensure that we set the agenda for ourselves and pursue it with determination. It is therefore imperative that business is united with purpose and must not allow agendas of self-interest and greed to overtake our noble course, for if this happens we are all doomed.
We therefore have a responsibility to create a viable social sector, a sector that is the engine of our economic transformation agenda, genuine manifestation of the longed-for dream of economic independence. We as government and you as business can make such objectives a reality.
For as long as there is abject poverty and the majority of people still eke a living in the dumps of our province, our ventures will always be relevant. For as long as the means of robust economic performance remain in the hands of a few that have always had them, our task remains more relevant than ever. It is us who must give economic growth a developmental meaning. A meaning that says, there is no growth if the fruits of a blossoming economy are enjoyed by a few and the rest become slaves to the advancement of the already wealthy.
It is us who have known poverty who can give economy such a moral culture; a culture of people-centredness; a culture that says we are not empowered if the majority still worry about just getting a job.
As President Mbeki said that we would always have sleepless nights if the majority are still bondage to humiliating poverty and their existence has been reduced to television images of hungry children in the hands of their famished and lifeless mothers. We who understand poverty must challenge. Remember the song, "He who feels it, knows it!'
I challenge to challenge us as government on issues where you feel we become an impediment. We will do the same to you where we feel your programmes only reproduce elitism and greed.
Before I sit down let me end by quoting to you the words of the President in his speech at the opening of Parliament "The Government... commits itself to work in a close partnership with all our people, inspired by the call - Faranani! - to ensure that we draw on the energy and genius of the nation to give birth to something that will surely be new, good and beautiful".
Today, we make a call to all South Africans to work in close partnership with us; to join us in the development of a policy that will lay the foundation for how we conduct our business in the future.
Let the work begin
Thank you.