Programme Director,
The Executive Mayor and the Mayor,
Chairperson of the Local House of Traditional Leaders,
Honourable Members of the Local House of Traditional Leaders,
Esteemed Traditional Leaders of our province,
Honourable Councillors,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening,
Let me express my gratitude for being invited to speak here this evening. I am really grateful to be part of this occasion tonight as we confront head on the complex challenges of governance and development within our communities.
It is an open secret that traditional leaders and Government share a fundamental responsibility of improving the lives of our people. What is well documented is that traditional leaders have sacrificed much in their fight to lead us where we stand in our own country today. And if I were to go down memory lane and reflect on the participation of traditional leaders in the struggle against apartheid and colonialism, we will spend the whole night here but suffice to say that the wars of resistance fought by many of our traditional leaders were not in vain.
The role that traditional leaders played in the struggle for freedom cannot be overemphasized. Among them is the iconic Chief Albert Luthuli who went on to win, in 1960, the Nobel Peace Prize for his sterling revolutionary work for the liberation of our masses. From the moment of colonial occupation, traditional leaders have been at the forefront of the struggle against dispossession, subjugation, oppression and discrimination. It is traditional leaders who were very central in the creation of the African National Congress in 1912 and have been prominent among the leaders of the different formations of liberation movement.
It is for this reason that the ANC led government's recognition of traditional leadership is unwavering and supported in all fronts.
They indeed played a monumental role and that is why we are today saying that South Africa is indeed a better place to live in than it was before 1994.
Programme director, in recognizing the role played by the traditional leadership, this democratic government established the House of Traditional Leaders which is guaranteed by the Supreme law of the land, the Constitution. It is this House that has an official mandate to ensure preservation of ethos, values and norms of our African traditions and culture. We must, through this House, ensure that we influence government policies to conform with and not leave out our traditional and cultural values. We must be relentless in maintaining and promoting moral regeneration amongst communities which was destroyed by the apartheid system of colonialism.
This gathering says to all of us that we must celebrate the triumph of our forebears. It should also say to us that colonialism and apartheid are gone but their legacies remain. We should know that our enemies are no longer colonialism and apartheid but unemployment, poverty and economic inequality among other things. Without fear or favour, we must put all our hands to the pump in confronting these scourges that daily torment our people. We must continue to mobilise our communities around social developmental agenda of government and society at large.
The daunting task of providing free basic services can only be completed through partnerships and cooperation with all stakeholders including traditional leaders. We believe these partnerships will immensely contribute towards the credibility and integrity of our planning processes.
The question, and a challenge for us all, is to continuously influence the Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) of municipalities. Traditional leaders should continue to ensure that their authorities do participate in both the planning and development of IDPs in municipalities affecting their areas of jurisdiction. This is the only way in which we can jointly succeed in pushing back the frontiers of poverty in rural areas and also ensure the successful implementation of the country’s National Development Plan (NDP).
We want to take this opportunity to thank those traditional leaders in our province who are actively participating in the governance of their municipal areas, either as elected public representatives or as traditional leaders of the people.
As government continues its delivery of services to our people, traditional leaders do play a meaningful role, in for example, the identification of beneficiaries entitled to free basic services, housing and social grants. By beneficiaries we mean deserving people with compelling cases whose conditions cannot be postponed for another day. This will go a long way as all our programmes are geared towards social upliftment of our people and pushing back the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment. We need to work together on this important aspect. We must never condone wrong things being done to our people in front of our eyes, such as the identification of wrong people who benefit from government services.
We implore our traditional leaders to be supportive of development initiatives in their areas, and not be perceived as stumbling blocks of development especially when land must be allocated for infrastructure and economic development. Our role is to support the initiatives of all spheres of government. If for instance, a municipality requires land for development to build houses, establish shopping complexes and other infrastructural developments that will create employment and eradicate poverty in communities; we must make land available with the full knowledge that it will mean a lot to our people.
Our people will benefit through job creation in those localities and there shall be houses, water and electricity provided through such developments. If we do so, our people will celebrate your existence knowing that our leadership is hard at work to create a better life for all.
Programme director, throughout the country we are one province that works well with our traditional leaders. At the very foundation of all our achievements is the unprecedented cordial and collaborative relationship that has developed between government and the traditional leadership in this province. There is no doubt in my mind that you will bear testimony to this statement. Our intention is to sustain this relationship and even elevate it to another level for the benefit of the people we all serve. We will do so because we value and celebrate our rich culture and historically rooted traditions because they define our identities.
The province has over the years been plagued by a myriad of traditional leadership disputes and we have since moved swiftly to address that. Now we all know that the Kgatla Commission has been hard at work since its establishment in 2012. This Commission has, to date, completed 74 cases. We hope that the remaining disputes will soon be a thing of the past. We are still making the call that those who are affected should cooperate fully with the Commission to enable it to speedily finalize the cases.
The 2014 initiation schools season is once more upon us. I want to emphasize the running of an incident free initiation school season in our province. I think we all agree that this can only be achieved if we comply with the rules and regulations that have been laid down. We cannot, as a province, afford to be associated with harrowing stories about our initiates dying. Those who know will tell you that it is not the aim of an initiation school to have our children losing their lives. It should be a true and noble rite of passage to manhood. We ask everybody to work with us on this important cultural practice as one death is indeed one too many.
We can, as a province, repeat last year's achievement of running death free initiation schools if we comply fully with the laws and regulations that pertain to the running of our initiation schools. As government we condemn this act of bringing government and the practice of the African culture into disrepute. To have some families mourning the death of their children while they should be celebrating the smooth passage to manhood of their children is not something we want to be party to.
We have granted 276 permits for this season and we are saying those permits come with responsibilities. This cultural practice resides within traditional authority. Illegal schools that lead to loss of lives will be dealt with accordingly. We have reached a point where one cannot take the life of an innocent youngster and avoid responsibility. The National Prosecuting Authority is busy pursuing all the people involved in the death of initiates that took place last year in Mpumalanga Province. Let our boys go through this important ritual to be taught values such as responsibility, respect for women and a man’s role in the community. The Initiation Schools Task Team together with stakeholders such as Health and SAPS should work relentlessly during this period to ensure that safety and health standards are enforced and followed to the letter.
As I conclude, I want to reaffirm our commitment as a department that there shall be housing, security and comfort for all, as enshrined within the Freedom Charter. I am confident that we will continue working together beyond this interaction to accelerate service delivery to better the lives of our people.
I thank you.
