CHAIRPERSON'S ADDRESS
Comrades,
Let us from the outset thank you, each one of you, for having taken time off from your busy schedules to be here today.
We meet here a few weeks after you, as branch members, elected us to lead the ANC in this province into the new millennium. We are humbled by the faith and confidence you have placed in us.May we take this opportunity to promise that, consistent with the tradition of the ANC, we will exercise and carry out our duties with the diligence, humility and deep sense of responsibility that is required of us.
Comrades, we meet soon after what is surely the single most important political event of 1999 the democratic elections of June 2. It was on this day that our people renewed our mandate to work for a better life We worked hard, all of us, to ensure an ANC victory. After such a grueling and punishing schedule, some of us may have been looking forward to a well-earned rest. But we dare not rest Comrades.
As we approach the local elections in 2000, greater demand will be placed on our time, our energies and our resources. We gather here today as generals in the war cabinet to plan, to plot for the battle ahead.
Comrades you will remember that important resolutions were taken at the Mafeking Conference, including that municipalities must be rationalised and in the case of metropolitan areas uni-cities created.
ANC Local Government Forums were to be established to ensure the approach is given political content and to process matters for decision. At provincial level it comprises of provincial Secretaries, MEC's of Local Government and representatives from Alliance
It was also proposed that provinces convene special extended Provincial General Councils in order to begin to keep structures of the ANC, SACP, COSATU and SANCO informed about the broad policy directions as well as to begin to manage possible areas of conflict, which may emerge. A few weeks ago the Demarcation Board suggested the following four principles, which would underpin the determination of nodal points for District Councils. Wherever possible a coherent economic base should be identified around which the district would cohere.
The Districts should not be too large; in settled areas a radius of 50 100 kilometers was utilized. While the population of Districts should not be too large, for economics of scale, it was felt districts should have a base population of least 1 000 000 persons and wherever possible, there should be some coherence to the economic and social base of districts. According to the Board proposals for Mpumalanga are at this stage limited to District Council Nodal Points. There are three existing District Councils in the Province.
Highveld District Council located in Middelburg Eastvaal District Council located in Secunda Lowveld Escarpment District Council located in Nelspruit. The Demarcation Board's proposals for the Province are that it should have 6 District Council Nodal Points. Lydenbug, KwaMhlanga and Ermelo are the three new proposed ones. It is also proposed that the present Highveld Nodal Point at Middelburg be located at Kriel.
After having conducted research into the matter the PEC concluded that:
- The populations of the existing three District Councils are fairly even ranging between 800 000 and million people.
- The Boundaries of the existing district councils coincide with all national, provincial and magisterial boundaries in the Province.
- The boundaries of the existing District Councils also coincide broadly with the three main water catchments area in the Province.
- The four strongest nodes of economic activity are Nelspruit, Middleburg, Witbank, Secunda and Ermelo.
- The major poverty pockets in the Province comprise of Nsikazi, Nkomazi,
Eerstehoek, areas around Wakkerstroom and Amersfort and the Western Region.
Very few of the existing local authorities in Mpumalanga are financially viable. The PEC therefore supports the idea of cross border municipalities and not cross-Border Districts. The PEC has concluded that the three District Councils should be retained.
The three District Councils are based on the three main functional areas in the Province and the boundaries coincide with national, provincial, magisterial and water catchment area boundaries. Each of the District Councils shares in one of the four main nodes of economic activity of the Province and each District Council serves at least one of the major poverty pockets in the Province.
Comrades, we say these things so we can begin to openly talk about them and reach decisions where necessary and where possible. Our appeal Comrades is that we approach today's summit with all the maturity and unity we can muster. We need to use our massed strength for the benefit of the province and the country as a whole. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.
The promises we made to people are paramount. Each one of us has a duty as comrades, individually and collectively, to ensure that we make good on the promises we made to our people.
Every member has a duty to deliver. We need as branch member, to build schools and to supply amenities. But once that is done we need to, as member of the ANC, teach our people that the amenities provided in their communities do not belong to some bureaucratic entity named government residing somewhere in an inaccessible building. These things belong to us and we must be protected - protected by us members of the community.
Comrades, we MUST build the ANC. We need to transform the majority we obtained on June 2, into active membership. Each one of those people who voted for us is a potential member. It is on us to go out there and bring them home onto the fold of the only organisation that can guarantee a better life for all.
To carry out all these measures will require a committed ANC and a determined government. We need a new patriotism. It requires citizens who love their province and country and are determined to see it succeed. It will demand morality in handling public resources: humanity in relating with one another even in the private domain: responsibility in exercising our freedoms.
We need strong minds, strong hearts and true grit. We can and must get this province back to work. We must do more than work - we must slave on. We must do more than just hear - we must listen to our people. We must do more than speak - we must say something meaningful and constructive whenever we address our people.
We must do more than just look - we must see the determination of our people to improve their lives. We are leading the province today by virtue of the will and the sacrifices of the people. We have a special responsibility to serve the people faithfully, honestly and to the best of your abilities.
Comrades, we committed this democratic government to working in partnership with the people for a better life. We promised that we would be a government that is in daily and respectful contact with the people; a government that listens and learns from the people.
In a few weeks time we will embark on a campaign of taking government to the people. Listening and learning from the people because of our firm belief that communities must take full responsibility for their upliftment in partnership with government.
We will visit all seven regions taking cabinet to the people and accounting fully to them. This will require discipline and responsibility whether we are at work or at leisure. We have no doubt that you will support these efforts. The demands on your time will therefore be great, but we are certain that building on the experience of the last five years, we will be able to plan so that everything that needs to be done is done.
If we make these demands on you, it is because you accepted the burden of responsibility when you decided to enter the ranks of this leading movement of fundamental change. You responded to the call of destiny to bring into reality the day when the people can indeed govern.
Comrades, let me conclude by appealing fore restraint, unity and respect for other's viewpoints. We sit in this hall today authorized by our people. We meet as the ANC, government, local government, Logam, traditional leaders leaders all of us and none better than the other - to position ourselves among the nation that is at work to build a better life for all within a caring society.
None of us is better than the other. Let us, as local government leaders, embrace and work together with our traditional leaders. Let us find a way of avoiding calling each other names and expending our energies on fights and squabbles that will not benefit our people.
Let me take this opportunity to announce that we will be meeting with traditional leaders in the next few days to try and resolve some of these thorny problems.
Finally, Comrades, let me talk to you as revolutionaries. I am convinced that as people tasked with protecting the gains of the national democratic revolution, you know that one of the greatest dangers threatening our democracy is counter-revolution. The tendency amongst some revolutionaries is to look for counter-revolution somewhere else instead of right here.
There is no denying that HIV/AIDS is a threat to our revolution and should therefore be classified as a counter-revolutionary force. We need to isolate it and render its counter-revolutionary practices ineffective. In so saying I am not suggesting that you isolate those who are victims of the epidemic or those who live with or care for victims of the HIV/AIDS scourge.
Comrades, as ambassadors of the HIV/AIDS Partnership, you must ensure that the information you communicate about HIV/AIDS is accurate. Tell no lies, and claim no easy victories. There is no known cure for the epidemic. The only cure is prevention. If you can't push back the urge to indulge in sexual activity, use a condom. Be loyal. Better still prevent this disease the best way you can: abstain. To borrow another slogan from the revolution : Abstain, be loyal, Use a condom or death is certain!!!
Indiscriminate use of the slogan: Inyama enyameni , flesh to flesh will result umlotha emlotheni .
I thank you.