SPEECH BY PREMIER
Master of Ceremonies;
Honoured guests.
Ladies and Gentlemen.
As the Premier it is my privilege to attend many functions as a representative of the people of the province. All these functions are important, but today's ceremony has a special meaning and it is a great pleasure and honour to share it with you.
But allow me first to extend my sincerest apologies for any inconvenience caused for not having honoured the invitation to speak here much earlier.
It was with deep regret that pressing commitments prevented me from coming to speak to you last year. Please accept my profoundest apologies.
But then I consider myself privileged for being allowed to share with you in honouring community builders; men and women who are beacons of hope on the path to building a better life for all.
Privileged to be in the company of men and women who have made the rebuilding of their town the theatre of their operation. People who have dedicated their lives to the upliftment of their communities. We are here to sing the praises of those devoted men and women with ideals and imagination.
People who are against all odds, through their conscious, purposeful and humane actions inspire their own communities to reach for greater heights.
We are gathered here to honour patriots – men and women of practical wisdom. Who through their selfless contributions to the happiness of others inspire our entire nation to work towards a better life for all. But where did it all began?
I am told these are the first ever Community Builder Awards in Middelburg.
The awards, I am further informed, are aimed at recognising the efforts of individuals who work tirelessly, without receiving any salary, to make a positive contribution and difference to the people of Greater Middelburg.
I believe I am right when I say that every finalist in this room tonight understands that his or her journey to this happy occasion began with a personal mission, the idea that one person can do something that benefits another.
Sometimes along the road to a better life, when we are faced with difficulties, when we stumble and fall, it is all too easy to despair and give up.
But when one hears of how our communities are joining hands to create a better life for themselves and those around them, then we regain the strength to meet whatever difficulties there may be.
Ladies and gentlemen, in a sense Middelburg has always been a trailblazer in the province – and in the country. It is no mean feat to win the Masakhane National Award twice. You have done us proud. Why don't we applaud ourselves?
But the task is far from complete. The challenge to mobilise all the people of Middelburg – indeed the people of the province – to be community builders in every walk of life has never been greater.
Now is the time to launch a sustained offensive to wipe out poverty in our province and our country. Millions of our people are still condemned to suffer from hunger, from malnutrition and its diseases.
They are prey to deprivations that result in homelessness, inadequate clothing and lack of access to jobs and other ways and means by which they can secure an adequate standard of living.
Millions of our people are still condemned to lead miserable lives, to suffer from physical and mental ailments and to die young because of preventable diseases.
These include respiratory diseases, malaria, AIDS, cholera, tuberculosis, venereal diseases and others. We need to confront this situation with all the necessary determination, in a sustained struggle to translate the principle of the right of the people to health into reality.
Millions of our people continue to survive in conditions of illiteracy, non-innumeracy, poor education, ignorance and poor skills.
The people-centred society we seek to build throughout our province and our country requires, among other things, that we should aim to ensure that every single South African, regardless of age, gender, class, race, ethnicity or belief should live in conditions of freedom, dignity and absence of fear.
This means that we should isolate those who commit crimes against women and children. But at the same time we must remove, those elements that may give rise to people turning to crime.
We must create jobs and in so doing banish famine, hunger and homelessness. Criminals continue to prey on our people and society, among other things raping women and abusing children .
We have to wage an all-out struggle against these elements. The government will begin in earnest to ensure that we stimulate economic growth everywhere in the province.
Every local council, every Metro council must be a sphere of economic regeneration so that we can create those much needed jobs.
We are convinced that turning the whole province into a beehive of activity will result in economic growth and the alleviation of poverty and want.
Believe me when I say that this government will ensure that the people themselves work as conscious agents for economic development and job-creation.
We must also ensure that we make the necessary interventions at all levels of education, to encourage the culture of learning, teaching and discipline as well as interest in and study of mathematics, science, technology and engineering.
None of our plans can succeed without a partnership between government and all sectors of our community, including business or the private sector. Government on its own cannot provide what is needed, nor should it try to do so.
Ladies and gentlemen, tonight is not a night of speeches. It is a night to honour our heroes and heroines.
On this occasion we should thank all those involved - communities, organisers, adjudicators and others - as the pioneers who have worked to make this first year of the Award such a success.
You have set a standard that will challenge others to follow in your footsteps in future years. We are very proud of them. They are our treasured possessions, jewels in the crown of our province.
To the award winners, please be aware that your triumphs are celebrated by the entire province whose banner they have raised high amongst the people of the country.
You occupy that soft spot in the hearts of millions as role models and standard bearers. You should have no doubt in your minds about the huge social responsibility that comes with the status that the nation confers on you as a result of their achievements.
As we create a sense of common belonging, our community builders among us are driven by a sense not of exclusion but of embrace.
It is through this immediate sense of belonging within a community that national belonging develops and a dynamic understanding of our place in the world. We must thank Columbus Steel in contributing to this process and in assisting in sponsoring these awards.
Finally, warm congratulations to the recipients of the Community Builder Awards. I am truly honoured to have the privilege to salute our community builders for their leadership qualities, their humanism, their virtues and their strengths.
It is they and others like them who enable us to move together towards a higher, nobler, richer life for all and the birth of a South African people defined by embrace not rejection, by national unity, not exclusion.
I thank you.