PREMIER'S COMMENTS
Thank You Master of Ceremonies
Uthingo CEO Mr Humphrey Khoza
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen.
I feel greatly honoured to have been invited to this gathering today. When I was invited I was told that Mr Khoza expects me to come and play the LOTTO. Ngizodlala I-LOTTO. Naturally my reaction was why play when there is work to be done?
Then I was told that I needed to fill in some form with numbers. And that I stand a chance of winning some big bucks. Again I explained that in my entire life I had never gambled. I had never placed a bet on a horse – or even a donkey.
I was then told that filling in the LOTTO was simple. It was like playing. I again said I can't play games when people don't have clean water. When they don't have electricity. In fact how can I play when the province had just been hit by floods resulting in loss of life and extensive damage to property?
“That's more the reason why you should play, Premier. You see the LOTTO is for a good cause”. I am here today because I support a good cause.
Master of ceremonies, five years after the first democratic elections we are still faced with major challenges.
The challenge of changing the lives of our people.
The challenge of facilitating economic growth.
The challenge to release our people from grinding poverty.
A challenge of dealing with massive inequalities in income distribution, high
crime rate and job losses.
To re-house people who lost their homes during the floods will require money.
To repair damaged schools, hospitals, bridges, roads – and other infrastructure
– will require lots of money.
During our visits to areas in the province we witnessed poverty and suffering beyond words.
We saw villages without clinics.
We saw areas without schools.
Master of ceremonies, we saw our people sitting on the roadside waiting for someone to offer them a job. But then we also saw in the eyes of our people a resolve and a determination to get out of that circle of grinding poverty.
We saw a people with renewed hope.
Hope that they will, working together with their government, create a better life. It will take years for us to eradicate some of the legacies of apartheid.
The backlog we inherited is massive. We are constantly faced with the hard choices of whether we build a clinic or houses. Now to some the choice may be quite simple. House the people. But house them where there is no clinic. No school, no recreational facilities? That is why we need programmes that will support our efforts to improve the lives of our people.
Our call for a partnership between government and business is born out of a genuine belief that together we can make a difference. When business erects a schools we are able to divert the money initially budgeted for that project towards something else. That will speed up the process of working for a better life.
The national lottery has a role to assist the government to spearhead the country's fight against the legacy of systematic deprivation and poverty. They have a noble aim of benefitting all the people of South Africa through the injection of billions of rands to social upliftment programmes and national development causes.
That is why I am delighted – no excited – that the national lottery is a reality in our country.
Now in a situation where there is massive unemployment, no-one can say no to something that guarantees the creation of more than 40 000 jobs.
Mr Khoza, I hope I am right when I say the lottery hopes to raise more than a billion rands annually. And that that money would be disbursed to good causes? Am I right Mr Khoza?
Hayi, nizizwele ngezenu izindlebe.
So when you fill in that form I hope you do so in the fulfilling knowledge that while Uthatha ama-chance and hope to win amamillion, you are doing so for a good cause.
I thank you.
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