Day Celebrations, Bloemfontein
25 May 2006
Programme Director
Members of the Executive Council
Representatives of the House of Traditional Leaders
Representatives of municipalities
Distinguished guests
Fellow Africans
Today we join millions of our fellow Africans across the continent to
celebrate a day that signifies what is undoubtedly a prolific milestone in
Africaâs recorded history.
We gather here today to observe and salute the inaugural meeting of the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU) that was held on this day in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia more that 40 years ago. This day also pays homage to the great African
visionaries of that time; the Heads of State, who through a common
understanding of unity, decided to seek a joint African solution to the
challenges that faced Africa at that time.
Indeed the OAU was the champion of the struggle against colonialism. The
organisation played a pivotal role in our very own struggle for liberation here
in South Africa. As South Africans, we therefore celebrate this day with a deep
sense of gratitude and thanks to the people of Africa who never wavered in
their support for the then oppressed majority in South Africa.
Many of these countries endured economic devastation and quite often,
military aggression because of their rejection of oppression and social
exploitation that was manifest in our country. And on this day, we want to
salute these fellow Africans for their firmness and resolve to support and
compliment our struggle for liberation.
Programme Director
When South Africa joined the OAU in 1994, the organisation had already entered
a new era where issues of development, economic growth and regional
co-operation started to become the major priorities for the continent. For the
past 11 years, South Africa has played a leading role to work with our fellow
governments on the continent to bring about stability in various regions
throughout Africa. Together with these governments, we worked and continue to
work towards combating our common enemies of underdevelopment, poverty,
illiteracy and disease.
In what can be described as an affirmation and continuation of the visions
and aspirations of the founding fathers of the OAU, we witnessed the birth of
the new African Union (AU) with President Mbeki as its first Chairperson. The
creation of the AU was necessitated by a growing realisation among governments
and people in Africa that we have a common future and that, now more than ever,
our progress and development depends on our ability to work in a united manner
towards our common goals.
This fact is best illustrated in the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (NEPAD), which has become a charter for the future of our
continent. In its founding document, NEPAD calls on African leaders, to share a
common vision, that as Africans, we have a pressing duty to eradicate poverty
and to place our countries on the path of sustainable growth and
development.
In an effort to ensure that we overcome the challenges confronting us on the
economic, political and social fronts, the AU established structures such as
the Pan African Parliament (PAP), the New Partnership for Africaâs Development
(NEPAD) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM).
It is thus befitting that this yearâs Africa Day celebrations are
specifically focused on the APRM. This self-monitoring tool was acceded to, by
all member states and its premise is the promotion of good and accountable
governance in all African states.
As Africans we should be committed to the policies and principles that
promote political stability, economic growth and sustainable continental
development. It is within this context that our government is actively involved
in various interventions across the continent to foster peace and
stability.
The people of South Africa must join hands with governments across the
African continent to make sure that we pursue integrated economic activities
based on intra-African trade, investment in each otherâs economies,
convertibility of currencies and the complimentary of economies.
The transformation of the post-colonial state and the liberation of our
people from the greed of the political elite, constitutes among some of the
pressing needs of the African renaissance.
To us, the African Renaissance is therefore both a call to action and a
strategic objective!!
Our provincial government, in accordance to the prescripts of the APRM, has
been involved in a process that promotes and encourages the review and
assessment of our mandate.
As the chairperson of APRM Provincial General Council has explained, we held
the APRM conference here in Bloemfontein towards the end of last year. In the
beginning of this year we began a series of consultative seminars, which
included all five districts, to engage communities and stakeholders on issues
such as good governance, corporative and economic governance as well as
socio-economic development.
The review process reflects an overall confidence by our people in our
mandate of bettering their lives.
Our government remains resolute in its endeavours to improve the lives of
our people for the better. The adoption of the Free State Growth and
Development Strategy has enabled us to incorporate a broad development policy
framework representing a watershed for development in the province. This
strategy as you may know, outlines the basic provincial priorities and is a
guiding tool to carry over our plans and vision towards 2014. We have also put
monitoring and evaluation mechanisms in place to measures progress with regard
to the programmes of the FSGDS.
Programme Director
The key priorities of our provincial government are properly embodied in our
call to action for 2006: An age of hope for shared and accelerated growthâ
Clearly this call to action transcends beyond the South African people and
is a clarion call for all Africans including those in the Diaspora to rise in a
common programme towards:
* poverty eradication
* placing African countries on a path of sustainable growth and
development
* stopping the marginalisation of Africa in the global process
* enhancing Africaâs integration into the global economy and to
* accelerating the empowerment of women
The above programmatic challenges requires an all round mobilisation of our
people to become the principal determinants of their freedom and emancipation.
Our country and province will use its experiences and resources to bring about
accelerated and shared growth in the rest of the continent
We are indeed proud of the significant strides we have made as a country
over the past 11 years. We are equally pleased with the achievements of the AU
during its short lifespan and the pursuit of NEPAD as its strategic
developmental agenda.
We are obliged to use the celebration of Africa Day as a platform for
consolidating a view that whatever interventions are put in place to address
Africaâs plight must involve the peoples of Africa and must be led by Africans
themselves. We have to consolidate our global standing and continue tilting the
balance of forces in our favour.
As we move along the African Century we will continuously tackle our
challenges, which range from socio-economic development, famine, illiteracy,
conflict and diseases.
Africa Day should be a reminder to all of us that we can, indeed, deal with
these challenges in the same way we defeated slavery, colonialism and racial
discrimination.
We therefore take this opportunity to:
* call on all the progressive social movements to consolidate struggles for
the total eradication of the African debt
* call on all trade unions, youth movements and women organisations to
strengthen their mass mobilisation capacities to deepen pride and patriotism
and to generate activism for effective participation in NEPAD
* call on all non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across Africa to continue
complementing the efforts of governments to provide essential services such as
literacy provision, human rights education and skills development.
Today our country observes one of the very important campaigns: Taking the
girl child to workâ. Our plea is that this campaign must ignite a sense of
responsibility among all of us to protect and empower the girl child in Africa
because they are Africaâs precious jewels in whose hands lies the future of
this continent.
We have the ability, in the words of President Mbeki, to "be instruments of
our own sustained upliftment". We have the ability to stand together as
Africans and to develop a continent, at peace with itself and united in our
quest towards progress and development.
We trust that we will all leave here more inspired and with a renewed sense
of commitment to contribute towards making Africa a better place to live
in.
Rise Africa Rise!
Kgotso! Pula! Nala.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Free State Provincial Government
25 May 2006
Source: Free State Provincial Government (http://www.fs.gov.za)
