Speech by MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Mr Sihle Zikalala, on the occasion of the Debate on the State of the Province Address
Madam Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier
Honourable Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of this House
Distinguished Guests
We rise on behalf of the African National Congress, the people’s movement, firstly to add our voice in congratulating the Premier on his maiden State of the Province Address, which has reverberated throughout the country. We have no doubts in our minds that all right thinking people will agree that the address was an honest, visionary and principled engagement with all the people of our province. Your words, Comrade Premier, gave people of KwaZulu-Natal a renewed hope and inspired all of us to seek to play a meaningful role, as individuals and collectives, in building a KwaZulu-Natal characterized by unity, equality, prosperity and democratic practice.
The State of the Province Address was a re-affirmation of the fact that working together we move South Africa forward. It also underscores the centrality of the people in their own development as their own liberators led by the ANC.
In the same vein we want to extend our gratitude to His Majesty, Ongangezwe Lakhe, for sharing his wisdom with us when he opened our Legislature on Tuesday. Indeed, we commit ourselves to diligently-executing the tasks of accelerating development and forging unity as His Majesty instructed us.
Honourable Premier, you anchored your address on the theme “Through unity in action, we can move KZN to a prosperous future.” Unity of people is not possible without equal opportunities. It is out of this appreciation that, through your visionary leadership, you proceeded to direct that “as the province with the second largest contribution to the National Economy, we need to ensure that the call for radical economic transformation does not only remain a slogan but that it should find expression in our government and private sector programmes”.
Almost twenty three years into democracy, the majority of our people – the Blacks in general and Africans in particular, cannot continue to be on the periphery of the mainstream economic participation, ownership and control. The government’s project of uniting people of KwaZulu-Natal will be a pipe dream if we fail to consciously and deliberately redistribute economic opportunities for the benefit of the majority of our people.
In this regard, the renewed focus of the Provincial Government on Radical Economic Transformation has germinated the Operation Vula which seeks to leverage on government buying power to empower the historical disadvantaged using Cooperatives and SMMEs. Through Operation Vula, the government will be redirecting is resources to where it matters most – the empowerment of the ordinary people who continue to be sellers of cheap labor to the big companies driven by profit maximization.
One of the flagship programme of Operation Vula is the Radical Agrarian Socio-Economic Transformation (RASET) as reported by the Premier in his State of the Province Address. RASET aims at transforming the agricultural value chain by including historically disadvantaged people into meaning full production and control of agricultural produce. KwaZulu-Natal is very rich in agriculture but this potential has not been exploited to the fullest and remains a highly excluding and untransformed industry. Through RASET, many ordinary people of KwaZulu-Natal will have an opportunity to participate meaningfully in the entire value chain of agricultural produce, with the market guaranteed by government and other private sector institutions that have expressed interest in participating in this programme.
True to our vision of being a Gateway to Africa, Operation Vula will plant seeds for the realiSation of the vision of Regeneration of Africa by Cde Pixley ka Isaka Seme where he envisioned “The brighter day rising upon Africa… her chains dissolved, her desert plains red with harvest …her Congo and her Gambia whitened with commerce, her crowded cities sending forth the hum of business, and all her sons employed in advancing the victories of peace-greater and more abiding than the spoils of war.”
With Operation Vula, the chains of monopolies and cartels that continue to exclude the majority of our people from economic benefits and participations will be dissolved; all the land of KwaZulu-Natal will be red with harvest and whitened with commerce; the sons and daughters of KZN will be engaged in meaningful production.
Honourable Speaker, as part of radical economic transformation is the renewed drive to revive rural and township economies. Over the recent period, we have witnessed a high proliferation of shopping malls in township and some rural areas. Whilst this has come with certain advantages and benefits, it also has a fair share of negatives such as destroying the informal businesses. To protect the local business, we must enforce equal ownership of shopping malls between the developers and local people. In this regard, the KwaMnyandu Mall model is one which all of us should emulate because there is real local ownership. For those interested to know, the developer owns 49%, while the remaining 51% is owned by a consortium made up of military veterans, women, taxi association, young people and private, local investors. Equally the anchor shops in these shopping should be directed to sources products from local SMMEs and Cooperatives unless there is no local capacity.
Honourable Speaker, the resolution of the land question can no longer be delayed. We are encouraged by the announcement the President made in his State of the National Address that the state will now adopt a more radical approach on the issue of land reform to fast track the desired outcomes. We must be brave to point out that some of the challenges we are facing in speeding up land reform was the programme of reconciling with the enemy that does not forgive nor forget.
As we address the issues of land, we must equally condemn opportunistic tendencies by some in the opposition benches who want to use the issue of land as a political football. Because the land question is so important such that it can be left to members of parliament alone, including the dishonest one from the opposition benches, as the ANC we call for the referendum on the expropriation of land without compensation. Whilst we engage debate on referendum, we must be encouraged by the Muden Community are forging ahead with the 50/50 voluntary land share programme which brings together the Muden community and the farmer in the area. This is correct step towards a right direction of transferring not only skills but ownership to the majority of people in line with the Freedom Charter that “Land shall be shared by those who work it”.
Honourable Speaker, KwaZulu-Natal is the home of business and investments. The growth of our economy is largely dependent on how we best attract both local and foreign direct investments. In this regard, we are moving ahead with employing all avenues to remove red-tapes that hinder productive investments. The establishment of the Provincial One-Stop-Shop will ensure that there is central coordination and availability of all regulatory services required by investors in the province.
We will also forge ahead with massive infrastructure rollout which will make it easy and cost-effect to do business in KwaZulu-Natal.
The province, as part of attracting investment, will exploit the full potential of its two Special Economic Zones which is Dube Trade Port and Richards Bay IDZ.
Honourable Speaker, over the past two decades of freedom and democracy the ANC led government has recorded tremendous strides in consolidating democracy and restoring the dignity of the African child. However, we are disturbed by the concerted agenda to regress the progress made seen through the rise of populism and right wing agenda. There are renewed and coordinated attempts to replace the people’s government through undemocratic means and by playing with the emotions of the people. It has becoming a norm that when those in the opposition benches are rejected by the people through democratic means, they will always run to courts of law to find shelter and seek to use courts to undermine democratic decisions.
There is also a rise of right wing agenda in society seen through heightened instances of racial tensions and slurs. The enemy of progress has seen that the most dangerous tool to regress the gains recorded is to divide the people again through racial lines. We must mobilise all the people of KZN to frown upon and isolate all the proponents of racial divisions – the majority which are found in the Democratic Alliance.
It is public knowledge, Honourable Speaker, that the Democratic Alliance is a safe heaven for the accomplished racists and enemy of unity and progress. As the old saying goes “out of nothing, nothing comes” The DA today continues to exhibit and protect of the traits of its forerunner - the racist and murderous National Party. As history books records, it was the father of the founding DA leader, Mr Leon, who issued a court judgment that Cde Solomon Mahlangu should be killed. Recently, the demons of racism that are residing peacefully in the DA have shown their ugly heads again.
When we began year 2016, a DA member by the name of Penny Sparrow called African people monkeys. This was following hot on the heels of yet another racist slur by a DA Member of Parliament Ms Dianne Kohler Barnard who went to public wishing for the return of PW Botha. Recently, the Deputy Chairperson of the DA, Morgan Chetty, called our African brothers with a derogatory and Xenophonic name (amakwerekwere). This, honourable members, attest to one and only one thing – the enemy does not forgive nor forget. As Karl Marx taught us in the revolution the battle always continues – sometime open and sometimes hidden. So we must not be blinded by the fact that we can sit together in this house and drink tea together, the enemy may change its colour but it remains the enemy
Madam Speaker, people of KwaZulu-Natal have every reason to have confidence and trust to their government. Through Unity in Action, indeed we can move KZN to a prosperous future.
I thank you
