C Mokitlane: Poverty Alleviation projects during Social Development
Month

16 October 2006

Honourable members of the Executive Council
Honourable members of the Provincial Legislature
Honourable MECs of Social Development
The Director-General of the province
Director-General of the National Department of Social Development
Heads of departments' of the Free State Provincial Government
Heads of departments of Social Development
Executive Mayors and councillors
Representatives of Local Government
Marena, Dikgosi, Le Mafumahadi
Members of the business fraternity, non-governmental organisations,
community-based organisations, and faith-based organisations
Members of the media
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Our country is united in pursuit of a noble cause of working towards a
shared national effort to expand the frontiers of care, security, peace and
dignity for all citizens of our country.

We are joining hands to celebrate the advances that the smart partnerships
of government, civil society, community, faith-based partnerships, individual
contributions, and activism are registering towards a better dispensation for
all humanity.

Our country has since the dawn of a democratic era, been the spectacle of
the world to see if the ideal of a people cantered, socially just and peaceful
era can be sustained over the much immediate and "realistic" intrusions of
individualistic, crude and shrewd values that teach us that for peace to
prevail there ought to be less emotions and non existence of care. These are
the values that have gradually eroded our sense of being humans and whose
existence cannot be justified in the midst of suffering in our
surroundings.

Gradually, the regime of care is gaining momentum and the sceptics are
losing ground. It is common cause, today in South Africa for people to tell you
how much they care, and how their business dealings will contribute towards
greater prosperity for all. However, as a government of the people, ours is to
ensure that this goes beyond public pronouncements and "opportunistic" adoption
but becomes the characterising feature and personality of the caring actions/
ways of life that we effortlessly exhibit in how we extend the safeguarding of
the regime of care to all our people.

In the Free State, as the most immediate form of reference, the Provincial
Government during the Senior Management Service conference held at the end of
August 2006 has realigned itself to mechanisms that will see a faster
attainment of the 2014 Vision and objectives which are:

* to grow the economy
* reduce poverty and unemployment
* and promote social inclusion amongst others.

In that line of thought, that is why it becomes effortless for us, as the
Provincial Government to support the efforts of the expansion of the regime of
care to the children, the youth, and people with disabilities, the elderly and
all vulnerable groups. Indeed, whilst we are satisfied that a lot of work is
being done to secure and safeguard the right and dignities of these groups, we
are aware that more needs to be done to change bad societal practices of
neglect, abuse, the general spiralling of negative values and moral
degeneration.

Therefore, "honouring our senior citizens" is more than appropriate to mark
the Social Development Month. It is more so because it builds on the
achievements of the highly successful campaigns such as the child protection
week, the youth month, the anti-drugs and substance abuse week.

The combined effect of all these, is a resounding mitigation of the
perception that the noble idea of building a caring society together is a pie
in the sky and unachievable, unrealistic and pacifying self-acknowledgement by
government. Ours is a people's government, it is a government that has long set
its vision o the future and every step of the way we are navigating our way
towards a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society that puts
people first.

Our actions and efforts are not limited to the local stage. At the
international front, our country is doing everything possible to engender a new
set of values in good, humane global governance. These are all encompassing
values of a compassionate government service to the people. By way of good
practice in our own shores, we have put South Africa in a strategic position to
effectively drive the engendering of human values in global governance.

It is by no co-incidence that this way of thinking has found its way towards
the embrace by the United Nations (UN) in shaping a set of global values of
care and expansion of the frontiers of security, peace and comfort for senior
citizens, and all vulnerable groups as global citizens. To this effect, the
United Nations has pronounced that 2006 shall aim efforts at "improving the
quality of life for older persons: advancing UN global strategies."

My intention ladies and gentlemen is to inspire a movement of galvanising
greater support by peoples of the world towards achieving the goals of the UN
Millennium Development Goals which serve to inspire our very own National and
Provincial Growth and Development strategies. It is therefore important for us
to take a lead during the Social Development Month to unleash a programme of
activities that seek to curb the pace of social disintegration and moral
degeneration. Importantly, to shape the course of measuring the advances and
achievements of reconstruction and development by looking at the extent to
which all that is done advances the course of expansion of the regime of
care.

During this period the government will do all that it must do to demonstrate
the integrated nature of the effort of building social integration, social and
moral justice towards a society that is self reliant, socially cohesive and
empowered. Our presence here in this tiny outpost of the former social
exclusiveness, we are showcasing our achievements in meeting the human and
social needs of the poor and vulnerable communities of the Free State through
an inter-sectoral and integrated developmental social service.

Our practical application to the call by the 45th Session of the UN Social
Development Commission to promote full employment and decent work for all is
evidence enough of the bundle of benefits that our integrated efforts both at
home and abroad are yielding. Amongst other ways, of which some have already
been eloquently introduced to you at various platforms, are ensuring access for
all to food security, the promotion of shared equity through establishment of
community-based development co-operatives, income generating schemes, and
importantly the linking of grants to development.

Since the establishment of Social Security Agency to specifically administer
the disbursement of grants in April, the role of the department has been
redesigned to focus on the elements that strengthen society and limit the
over-emphasis of grants as the only measure to facilitate social cohesion. I
want to invite your most valued reflections of whether there can be anything
that we are leaving behind over the next two days' seminar.

Through various poverty alleviation initiatives, our focus now is on linking
grants to development. In that way, we are putting together an integrated
package of social services that will lead to alternative means of living, away
from dependence on grants and a greater access to social welfare services and
community development programmes. This must also lead to the appreciation of
our elderly as reservoirs of knowledge and wisdom to help in strengthening our
traditional social networks. Our community development initiatives must
therefore create a space for participation by the elderly, as individuals or as
part of their luncheon clubs or other community networks.

In various ways we must work hard to acknowledge and protect the hard-earned
rights and freedoms for all the people of our country, our children and senior
citizens alike. These rights and freedoms are a result of many sacrifices by
the people of the world which saw the General Assembly of the United Nations
Organisation passing groundbreaking resolutions regarding protocols on the
treatment of older persons, children, people with disabilities, women, youth
and vulnerable groups.

The celebrations of this month must therefore serve as a reminder and a
response to the challenges of abuse, neglect, general ill-treatment,
starvation, deprivation of older persons and all vulnerable groups around the
world, that their struggle and condition is not theirs alone, it is felt by the
people of our country and our world, and that there is a global movement of
care that can also be felt by the people of Thaba Nchu that is on their
side.

The treatment of the elderly must be informed and mirror a set of values
that seek to affirm the foundations that were laid by our President Mr Thabo
Mbeki when he said "…among the yardsticks' by which to measure a society's
respect for human rights, to evaluate the level of maturity and it is
generosity of spirit, is by looking at the status it accords members of society
who are vulnerable, disabled, senior citizens and its children."

Ladies and gentlemen, as a caring government, we are constantly evaluating
the effectiveness of the interventions that we make proclamations on, such as
that which I quoted above. That is why without fear of embarrassment we can
confidently say that although it is not yet "UHURU", the efforts of the
Minister Skweyiya in instituting a commission in 2000 to investigate the
condition of our elderly, have yielded results of a change for the better. The
result of this was a revelation of the extent to which our elderly were
neglected and ill treated. That is why we remain committed to the protection of
rights and dignities of all.

I am satisfied therefore that since the Ministerial Commission, the
conditions of our elderly have improved, and we are able to Honour them today
as recipients of care and the promise of a better life for all.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is our obligation to use every available
opportunity to highlight the benefits of protecting the rights and freedoms of
our elderly, as well as teaching others about these rights. That is why we are
all anxiously waiting for the passing of the Older Persons Bill into an Act, so
that the rights of the elderly are entrenched in the legal system and negate
the temptation to relegate our senior citizens and vulnerable groups into the
basket case of welfare. We must turn the tide and entrench the vital values of
care, dignity, responsibility and solidarity.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we must not wait for legislation to be passed which
must tell and guide us on what it means to be human. We must change our world
by being volunteers of a humane world. We must stop at nothing in building a
South Africa that belongs to its children, the youth, the elderly, people with
disabilities and all vulnerable groups.

It is my trust that we shall all take the opportunity of the Social
Development Month to start something good such as honouring our Senior Citizens
by giving them love, care, respect, protection, dignity and a sense of
belonging. It is also my fervent wish that most of you gathered here today who
are our partners in poverty alleviation will pledge your support to projects
such as Tsogang Batho in order to help us ensure long-term sustainability of
these initiatives in true demonstration of your commitment to public-private
partnerships.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Social Development, Free State Provincial
Government
16 October 2006