PREMIER 'S ADDRESS
Thank you Mr. Programme Director,
Honourable MEC for Local Government and Traffic, Mr. Tolo
His Worship the Mayor of Mbombela, Councilor
Isaiah Khoza,
The Acting Chairperson of SALGA, Ms. Nomandiya Mfeketo,
The Chairperson of LOGAM, Councilor Jimmy Mohlala,
The Chairperson of SAMWU, Mr. Jacob Phala
The Chairperson of IMATU, Mr. Dave Edge
Mr. Erik Harvey from Mvula Trust
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for inviting us again this year to address your important annual activity.
Every time we get such a privilege, this opportunity never to be missed, we feel greatly honoured for we believe that it is through such kinds of interaction that we can honestly and objectively engage and constructively criticize one another in our quest to shaping a better future, a better life for the people of our province in our country.
Especially this time because we meet under a completely new climate of local government.
It is this kind of climate that gives us more hope, courage, determination and confidence about our future, the people of this country. Yes, our hope is about making the lives of our people better, where they live, by improving the conditions where they live.
For the first time in the history of this country you are part of this grandiose opportunity to serve under the first ever type of local government that integrates cities, towns, and rural villages.
I want to believe that no one amongst us may claim to have an experience of this type of government. Therefore we have a strong reason to believe that this is the type of local government that our people waited for, for so long.
It took us a full five years to transform the local government, which was based on discriminatory and apartheid principles over many decades.
There is no better time than this in our lives, for we have a golden opportunity in our hands to steer this ship to the right direction. This is the time to shape our future our destiny. This is the time and the time is now.
Program Director, last year when I addressed you I asked you if you were ready for the challenges of the 21-century? Unfortunately due to other engagements I had to leave your conference before getting your response. Nevertheless I believe today I will have an opportunity to get that response.
For us to understand the challenges of this century, we have first to understand the conditions under which we prevail. These conditions entail the new era of type of local government. A new type of local government, which we call a developmental local government.
The developmental local government presents to us a stronger tool through which we can make a major impact on the daily lives of all the people of South Africa.
This new type of local government is about maximizing social development and economic growth. We have to work together with our people in our communities to find sustainable ways to meet their social, economic and material needs and improve the quality of their lives.
Millions of our people live in dire poverty, isolated from services and opportunities.
The previous apartheid local government did very little to help those with the greatest needs to an extent that the structure of the economy was designed infact to create and reproduce these inequalities in favour of the minority.
Our duty therefore remains that of reversing these long standing patterns of inequity and unmet human needs which could have been difficult, if not impossible, to address under the transitional system of local government.
It is for this reason that we should be responsible for taking active steps to ensure that the overall economic and social conditions of the locality are conducive to the creation of employment opportunities.
To this effect the Mpumalanga Government and myself have resolved to make our first priority to promote economic growth, which will result in job creation.
Together with you we need to co-operate around this objective and have a clear vision for the local economy, and work in partnership with local business to maximize job creation and investment.
We will not succeed with our vision if we do not involve our communities. We have to involve different stakeholders to contribute to the development, including national and provincial departments, parastatals, trade unions, community groups and private sector institutions.
Our developmental type of local government should play a central role in deepening and defending our democracy. Hence our Municipal Councils should promote the involvement of ordinary citizens and community groups in the design and delivery of municipal programmes.
We need to be aware of the divisions of the divisions within local communities, and seek to promote the participation of marginalized and excluded groups in community processes. We should always bear it in our minds that we are reshaping and/ or rebuilding a nation that has to be completely different from the past.
All obstacles that prevented our people, especially the Africans and women, to equal and effective participation have to be removed, such as social values and norms, as well as practical issues such as the lack of transport, household responsibilities, personal safety, etc.
This kind of approach not only will it bring us closer to our voters but it shall also inform us of what our people want. It is a very dangerous exercise to lead communities that you not so sure of their needs.
Our people are concerned about the areas where they live. They are concerned about access to services such as clean water, sanitation, local roads, storm water drainage, refuse collection and electricity and economic opportunities, mobility, safety, absence of pollution and congestion, proximity to social and recreational facilities, and so on.
We need to create our areas where we live into livable, integrated cities, towns and rural areas. Good basic services, apart from being a constitutional right, are essential to enable people to support family life, find employment, develop their skills or establish their own small businesses.
One of the biggest challenges that we are facing is to bring total integration of towns and townships. The apartheid regime has left deep scars on the spatial structure of our cities, towns and rural areas, and the lives of millions of individuals and family households.
Therefore our Munipalities will have to address spatial integration as one of the central issues around nation building until the locational disadvantages which apartheid imposed on the black population, through the Group Areas Act and forced removals, are removed.
The integration must ensure that there is affordable mobility between work, home and recreation; combat crime, pollution and congestion; and structure the built environment to facilitate the participation of disadvantaged groups in the social and economic life of the Municipality.
In rural areas we have to build an environment that will ensure that our people have access to land and services, address the distortions in ownership and opportunity that apartheid created between white and black rural dwellers.
Today many black people are victim to life threatening and preventable diseases such as cholera, malaria, tubercolosis including HIV and Aids not because they not health conscious, but because of inhabitable places they live in.
We need, uncompromisingly, to come up with integrated development plans and financial budgeting that will bring redress and equity.
Our financial planning would have to move from objectives to delivery. We should establish an integrated development plan for short, medium and long-term goals.
We cannot say we are making progress as a people and a nation, unless our people begin to see change happening over these fundamental instruments.
It is only through these instruments that we can afford our people adequate shelter over their heads, adequate food to feed themselves and their families, health care, and access to clean water and electricity.
Mr. Programme Director, if all our Municipalities would gear themselves to these challenges, nothing will detract us from our main agenda, that of making the lives of our people better.
These are the challenges of this African Century.
I thank you.