PREMIER'S ADDRESS
Master of Ceremonies
Comrades from the Alliance
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Thank you for inviting me to this important strategic planning session for the integrated spatial framework development in Mpumalanga.
Allow me to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Bafana Bafana who played so hard in the CAF Sunday night when they won the game playing against Ghana. Wishing them good luck when they continue to play in the CAF games for South Africa.
Let me also take this opportunity to inform you that we will embark on a report-back session to those who extended our mandate in June 2 elections. Just as we did when we were canvassing for votes, we will travel the length and breath of this Province so our people can judge us on what we did in our first few months of office.
I know that you as leaders and member of the community you will support us when we take our achievements and failures to the parliament of the Province.
Master of ceremonies, the government I lead and on whose behalf I am speaking today, welcomes workshops such as these for number of reasons.
Not only do they give us as comrades and partners a chance to exchange ideas an share the latest in developmental strategies, but it also offers us a chance to honestly and critically re-assess our achievements and our failures.
Too often we fall into the trap of claiming easy victories. We push out our chests, hold our heads up and lie about our achievements.
If we stand tall, master of ceremonies, it should be because we have genuinely made a difference in the lives of our people. On June 2 our people spoke and we listened.
They told us that they regard the ANC as the only organization that can bring change in their lives. They told us they appreciated the efforts of the past five years, but urged us to accelerate change- to let it happen a little faster.
Our people told us that they appreciate our efforts in bringing water, electricity, schools, health care and other amenities to them despite our limited resources.
It is that collective wisdom that flows those poor rural women, youth and men in Msogwaba, Mathanjana, Moutse and Mkobola that brought us here today. When they renewed our mandate they told us to be a government that listens to and learns from them.
And I can proudly say that I lead a government that is committed to working in partnership with the people, listening and learning from them.
Our people told us that for too long so-called residential areas for the poorest of the poor were developed purely as dormitories of cheap labour. It is not surprising that our people spend most of their time travelling to and from work.
Long before those privileged among us wake up, some of our people are already on their way to work in Nelspruit from such far-flung areas as Daantjie and KwaMhlushwa.
Is it not about time that we abandon the idea of developing townships and suburbs away from the centers of economic activity? Why do we still subscribe to the policy of providing houses for our people in the middle of nowhere?
Why is that we allow unscrupulous developers to erect sub-standard houses in areas where there is no infrastructre? Why do we allow people to steal from the poor thus retarding development?
I call upon all you here to be the ears and eyes of your people. If you know someone who is siphoning millions earmarked for housing development, tell us.
In short I am asking you to be informers. In the past it was taboo to be an Impimpi. Today we can be proud impimpi's because we are informers of our own democratic government.
A toll-free Anti-corruption line has been launched. This line will enable people to speak out about their needs and corruption going on in our Province. People will be able to leave us information without blowing their cover. By this line we will be expecting a lot of development in regards to decreasing corruption and that will not help only that area but the Province as a whole.
This is a challenge.
But it is only unscrupulous thieves posing as government servants who bleed our people dry. At times we also contribute through poor and uncoordinated planning.
Hundreds of millions are invested in the provision of shelter, particularly for the poorest of the poor. Do we provide shelter in a way that will ensure that there are health and education facilities; jobs; water; electricity and other amenities right on their doorsteps.
Unless we do so we would be failing in executing the mandate our people gave us. When Comrades DD Mabuza earmarked an area on the periphery of Nelspruit to erect low cost housing there should be close liaison with the MEC's for Health, Education, Safety & Security, Agriculture etc. In short all departments should work in close co-ordination for the physical, social and economic development of all areas.
Comrades we should also be able to create a balance between land use for Agricultural or residential purposes. Agriculture, Forestry, National Parks, Industry and Humans all make demands at one stage or the other for land use.
Only through integrated spatial framework will we able to strike a balance that will not see the weakest succumbing to those with money, power and influence.
How many times have we witnessed situations where a clinic is built without the necessary infrastructure to support it? Building a clinic that is inaccessible by road; a clinic that has no electricity or running water should be a thing of the past.
This forum must provide us with a chance to establish a clear integrated and strategic framework for the development in the province. It should also give us the opportunity to determine whether we are still on course when we proclaim that we are a province at work for a better life.
For our province to succeed in improving the lives of our people we need to take a long and hard look at what is stifling growth and development in the province.
When we leave these premises at the end of our workshop we should do so in the firm believe that no one will be able to challenge us when we say in Mpumalanga, and indeed in the country, every government ministry, every department and every statutory organization need is working in a manner that is supportive and complimentary to whatever development efforts contained in our five-year plan.
Master of Ceremonies, we need to be realistic, we need to work with what we have minimize what is holding us back
Let us turn to something very close to the heats of all of us here today. We are all interested in the development of this province. One area that can help us achieve this is tourism.
In the highly specialized and competitive domestic and international tourism markets it is not enough to just offer the big five. We have to look at our products and how they fit in the increasing specialized and niche markets of world tourism.
This is where Mpumalanga starts to look very attractive. In the markets of eco-tourism, adventure tourism, wildlife and cultural tourism we have tremendous untapped potential.
The potential of the province has yet to be fully grasped. Does research at our disposal tell us how we can utilize these opportunities?
In conclusion Comrades, when we leave this hall we should be able to say we have debated issues around the provision of guidelines for the development of an improved life for our people.
We should have worked out systems through which we can truly become a nation at work for a better life. But all our efforts will come to nothing unless we tackle a number of issues that pose a serious threat to development in the province.
There is also the HIV/AIDS scourage. It is all very well comrades to talk glibly about inyama enyameni. But the consequence could well be umlotha emlotheni, uthuli othulini
Let us unite in our fight against the HIV/AIDS threat. We see people falling around us everyday. Let us go out there and encourage our comrades to abstain; have one partner or otherwise use a condom.
May I take this opportunity wishing you well in your deliberations?