ADDRESS BY PREMIER
Master of ceremonies.
Honourable MECs.
Your worships mayors of towns and cities in Mpumalanga.
Chief Executive Officers.
Distinguished Guests.
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Allow me extend a hearty word of welcome to all of you.
Welcoming you as we gather here today as leaders all of us – none better than the other - to carry forward a pledge we made more than forty five years ago in Kliptown.
When we declared to our country and the world that the PEOPLE SHALL GOVERN, we did so in a solemn belief that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people.
We knew then, as we know now, that only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief;
Master of ceremonies on that historic day when we declared that e very man and woman shall have the right to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all bodies which make laws. And that that all people shall be entitled to take part in the administration of the country,
Indeed when we vowed that all bodies of minority rule, advisory boards, councils and authorities shall be replaced by democratic organs of self-government,
We knew that ours was a just cause.
Today as we gather to talk about participatory Intergovernmental Relations Forum, we do so proudly proclaiming that indeed the People ARE governing. As a people we won the right to govern during the first electoral combat in 1994.
It was then that our people showed the strength of our democracy by bringing about a peaceful change of administration through the ballot and not through the bullet. But the election was only a first step in the process to transform our country.
Hence we said to our people that…“No political democracy can survive and flourish if the mass of our people remain in poverty, without land, without tangible prospects for a better life”. And, my friends, even more important than winning the election is governing the nation.
That is the test for us as leaders - the acid, final test of us as servants of the people. When the celebrations of winning the elections had died down we were faced with the stark reality of responsibility. We immediately realised that one of our first tasks was to attack poverty and deprivation. That has been our primary mission.
We are convinced that we are on the right path to build a new society with new values and a new ethos. A society that is sustainable and built on a solid democratic framework.
In the last elections our people told us that we needed to accelerate change in order to improve the quality of life of all, especially the most disadvantaged. We dare not and will lot disappoint their expectations. That is why it is important for us to meet under these conditions and in this forum. This forum shall allow us to interact more frequently.
The aim of this body is to seek and foster a coherent, consistent and clear policymaking and programme management system between the two spheres of government,
And also to ensure a system of policy and resource allocation which promotes development and redressing of spatial, economic and social distortions to the advantage of the disadvantaged especially the poor, Africans, disabled, women and the youth. But above all it needs to ensure a rapid, well-targeted and efficient delivery of services,
And thus ensuring a common approach to Internal Government matters as well as how such are communicated to the public.
In short we need to:
- Enhance and promote co-operative governance
- Create a platform for the co-ordination of activities of provincial and local governments,
- Create a channel of communication between the province and local government,
- And to encourage an integrated approach to service delivery and avoiding unnecessary red tape and the duplication of resources.
Accordingly, our point of departure in working out the programme of the forum and its sub-structures, we must be informed by the perspective which guided us to conceive and eventually launch this body.
Two of the most important principles of that perspective were participatory democracy and co-operative governance.
As members of the Mpumalanga Inter-Governmental Forum we have, as a collective, a duty and responsibility to ensure that it succeeds. Not merely because it exists as an institution, but because the vision of which it is an expression is fundamental to the success of our province.
We must strengthen and accelerate the process of unity of our elected local representatives and our Traditional Leaders. We also must make the point, that both Councilors and Traditional Leaders need each other to steer this ship of transformation at a local level.
None of them can ever claim to be more important than the other. Thus, their unity of purpose, clarity of thought and nobility of vision will assist in realising the vision for which this forum is launched today.
On our part, we commit ourselves as a provincial government, to provide the necessary leadership and resources to steer this forum, to the best of our ability.
Accordingly, we shall expect commitment and dedication from all components and stakeholders of the forum so that it may succeed.
We are therefore proud to stand here today, as foot soldiers of our transformative agenda, and as Premier of the province of Mpumalanga to declare that the Mpumalanga Inter Governmental Relations Forum will and must work.
The success of this body relies on our shoulders as a collective. And so does its demise.
We are hopeful that guided by the spirit of transformation, informed by the need to address the basic needs of our people, we shall ensure that we succeed and thus truly earn the name of being honest, true and trusted representatives of our people.
We are confident that this year, acting together, we will achieve new victories in the continuing struggle for the reconstruction and development of our province. The time has come that we launch a sustained offensive to wipe out poverty in our province and country.
The people-centred society we seek to build throughout our province requires, among other things, that we should aim to ensure that every single person in the province, regardless of age, gender, class, race, ethnicity or belief should live in conditions of freedom, dignity and absence of fear.
As leaders of the people we need to keep in touch with the people. As their servants we should be accessible. There can be no such thing as a good municipality that is cut off from the people.
Contact with the masses of the people must therefore be an integral part of the regular work of all our municipalities, district councils and rural structures.
This contact with the masses of our people must also seek to involve them in activity directed at the reconstruction and development of our province so that they become, truly, their own liberators.
This means that we must have a clear and sustained programme of action, which our people must understand and support because it is directed at ensuring that they move further away from poverty and suffering towards a better quality of life.
We must not allow that any of our structures or individuals, as has happened in the past, to disrupt the work of the councils and councillors.
We have seen in the past that some people attempted to replace our sitting councillors for purely selfish reasons.
Master of ceremonies, we must begin in earnest to implement our integrated and sustainable rural development strategy and the urban renewal strategy.
In this context, we will have to ensure that the system of governance ensures that all three spheres of government cooperate very closely in the implementation of these programmes.
Finally, I believe we are all by now aware that this year South Africa will be hosting the United Nations World Conference on Racism. The Conference will bring many people from everywhere in the world to our country. They will come with the expectation that as a country, we will make a meaningful contribution to the outcome of the Conference.
Accordingly, we have an obligation and the possibility once more to focus on this issue, utilising the results we achieved at our own national conference last year. In our situation, this must also include the important question of the struggle against sexism.
As members of the Mpumalanga Intergovernmental Relations Forum we need to reach out to the masses of our people to involve them in the further deepening of our national response against both racism and sexism.
Also we to give further impetus to the growth and expansion of the economy, the creation of more job opportunities and further strengthening the material base for the provision of a better life for all.
However, these objectives cannot be achieved by the government working alone. The private sector must also be fully involved, from large to medium, small and micro enterprises.
I call on all citizens, I call on the bureaucracy, I call on those working here in this province, let us all be one. Let us be united, let us heal, let us build.
During my address at the opening of the legislature I also spoke about good governance. And I would like to stress once again here, what I believe are the pillars of good governance. And they are three:
First, a sound, moral foundation. Second, a philosophy of transparency. And third, an ethic of effective implementation.
One of our first missions is the solution of the problem of corruption. We assume leadership at a time when our province is freeing itself from the throes of a moral degeneration unprecedented in our history.
Graft seems to have permeated every level of government. The solution of this problem shall call for the exercise of the tremendous persuasive power of united action and zero-tolerance to corruption.
We must therefore consider it our duty to set a personal example in honesty and uprightness. We must prove that ours is not a province of hopeless grafters but one of good and decent men and women.
It is incorrect to say that we are out to solve all the problems of the province. No Premier, CEO, Executive Mayor or councillor can do that.
Nation-building is an exacting and endless endeavor. No Premier, CEO, Executive mayor can build the whole edifice of a Nation.
All that we are called upon to do is to add a fine stone to that edifice, so that those who shall come after us may add other fine stones that will go for a strong and enduring structure. No program can succeed without popular sustenance. We shall need that faith and that support demonstrated by our people in our election.
The new local government system offers heightened opportunities for the provincial and local government to work together to improve the lives of the people. We now have an opportunity to combine resources to deal with poverty, economic development and service delivery.
It is also a necessary step towards our objective of building a democratic, non-racial and non-sexist society, one where services to our people are rendered effectively, efficiently and equitably.
Will you join in that historic effort?
I thank you.