D Peters: Independent Development Trust Annual Report launch

17 October 2006

Members of the executive council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Executive mayors and councillors
Chairperson of the IDT Board Mr E Msimang
Trustees, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and staff of the IDT
Community members for IDT projects from the Northern Cape and other
provinces
Ladies and gentlemen

On behalf of the people of the Northern Cape, I take this opportunity to
welcome you all to this beautiful province of ours, to launch the 2005/06
Annual Report of the Independent Development Trust (IDT), which chronicles the
achievements of another active and successful year for the IDT.

We are very pleased that the IDT chose to bring all of you to our province,
to launch their 2005/06 Annual Report here in the Northern Cape and to host a
gathering on International Poverty Day, and a day after World Food Day.

I wish to congratulate the Board, its Chairperson Advocate Muzi Msimang and
Board members, the Chief Executive Thembi Nwedamutswu, management and staff of
the IDT for their work throughout the year and for receiving another
unqualified Audit Report for the 2005/06 financial year.

This is a record I believe the IDT has sustained for four years in
succession. It is an achievement, which the IDT can be proud of and should
celebrate because it is a record which very few government departments and
public bodies have attained. Congratulations!

It is apparent from the IDT's 2005/06 Annual Report we are launching today
that the Independent Development Trust has interpreted its mandate, to
influence, support and add to the government's development agenda,
correctly.

It is also obvious from the testimonies we had from beneficiaries earlier
that the IDT is taking its mission seriously:

"To enable poor communities to access resources, recognise and unlock their
potential to continuously improve the quality of their lives."

I am also impressed with the coherence between its mandate and strategic
objectives and what the nation expects from an organisation like the IDT. If I
match all of these intentions, the words, with what people are saying today,
then it makes me believe that the IDT is a thinking organisation; that it is
thoughtful and takes planning seriously.

Your organisation is at the helm in the fight against poverty, a mandate
that is in line with government's efforts to improve the quality of life of the
poor. In partnership with you we are charting new waters by opening
opportunities for the poor and the marginalised, by giving hope to individuals
and communities whose lives have been dictated to by despair and characterised
by hardship.

The IDT's innovative and sustainable development programmes makes a
measurable difference in the levels of poverty and underdevelopment in our
country and contribute firmly to the national agenda by not only providing
livelihood and revitalisation, but also inculcating a sense of pride and
respect to those that have benefited from your programmes.

The review of the first decade of freedom and democracy and an analysis of
the challenges that we face in the next decade points out clearly that
unemployment and poverty stands out as the foremost challenges of our times. We
thus cannot talk about a better life for all our people without tackling these
twin challenges.

Thus the need for the mobilisation of all sectors of our society, including
their resources, behind a shared vision of poverty eradication and unemployment
is a must.

Embracing the spirit of this challenge, the IDT has played the role of a
catalyst in ensuring the full participation of people for their own
development.

The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) state that our people
with their aspirations and collective determination are our most important
resource. It further states that development is not about the delivery of goods
to a passive citizenry.

It is about active involvement and growing empowerment of our people. Thus
our development must be a people-driven process. These central pillars of the
RDP are given concrete expression by the IDT's approach to development, that of
ensuring the full participation of people in their own development.

Over the last decade (1994 to 2004) the democratic government has focused,
amongst other things, on developing and establishing the legislative framework,
policies and programmes to improve economic growth, to reduce unemployment and
eradicate poverty. The mandate of the IDT is directly aligned to these
priorities of government.

To tackle poverty and unemployment depends on the effective mobilisation of
different sectors of our society behind a clearly articulated shared vision.
This requires that we translate our policies into overarching shared vision
around which government, civil society, communities and private sector work
together in a people's contract to build a better future. This overarching
vision will answer the question around the kind of South Africa we seek to
build.

Therefore the niche of the IDT lies in the development sector and it must
serve to bridge the gap between supply and demand and to enforce the social
contract between government and its citizens. Given this particular niche, the
IDT must differentiate itself by placing emphasis on the longer term impact of
its interventions by looking at the future outcomes as well as its outputs.

A constructive dialogue between government and its social partners is
crucial for fostering community consensus on those issues that are important
for accelerating growth, and improving the quality of life of all South
Africans. This means that lasting foundations for social and economic
development needs to be built on the mobilisation of public and private
resources.

During the Growth and Development summit of 2003, the constituencies sought
to promote sustainable jobs, more and better jobs, and there were a range of
agreements that were reached with the required interventions. These include in
the main the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), Public Investment
initiatives and many others.

Thus the role played by the IDT on government's national development
landscape is very critical in ensuring that government delivers on its mandate
of creating a better life for all. As a government development agency the
organisation is playing an important role in government initiatives and
interventions such as Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa
(AsgiSA), Poverty Relief Programmes (PRP), the Expanded Public Works Programme
and the rural nodes through the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development
Programme (ISRDP). The 2005/06 annual report illustrates the Trust's impressive
range of activity in its developmental work.

These programmes that the IDT is involved in are making an impact in the
daily lives of our people. Both the ISRDP and EPWP programmes are making a
positive impact in taking a step closer to making a dent on the poverty
history.

Whilst infrastructure developments such as the bucket eradication, road
infrastructure, social infrastructure, the provision of potable water and
electricity in our rural communities are alleviating poverty, it is also
stimulating our local economies.

Another critical area of development is at the level of local government
which has undergone drastic changes from being more than a structure of service
delivery to being a developmental local government.

This approach demands that municipalities should play a developmental role
by involving and working with communities in identifying problems, planning and
developing strategies. This participatory approach to development is deemed to
ensure sustainable development.

The new developmental local government system provides a framework within
which local municipalities are to function and operate. As per the Local
Government Municipal Systems Act and the Local Government Structures Act,
municipalities are required to involve and interact with people at local level
on developmental issues.

This therefore means that the Integrated Development Plans of municipalities
must be informed by the Local Area Plans through public participation in the
planning process and the IDT has a very critical role to play in this area.

On the other hand through AsgiSA, government has initiated interventions to
address inequalities in our society, targeting the most marginalised to bridge
the gap with the Second Economy and ultimately to eliminate it all together.
Testimony of these and other developments are borne by what the beneficiaries
of IDT projects have been speaking about earlier this morning.

In his State of the Nation address on February 2006, President Mbeki
indicated that the "AsgiSA process has helped us greatly by exposing us to the
concerns of women with regards to their economic prospects. Among others, the
women have pointed to the need for us to focus on issues of access to finance,
development of co-operatives, fast-tracking women artisans and providing
'set-asides' for women in government and public enterprises procurement."

I want to join with you Mme Nwedamutsu in renewing and confirming the call
for the empowerment of women and focusing on eradicating poverty among
women.

Why should we focus on women, you may ask? For one, more women than men are
poor:

* women constitute 52% of our population
* depending on one's unit of analysis, between 47 and 52% of South Africans
live in absolute poverty
* and of this number between 65 and 75% are women.

Of those who are poor, the greater majority of them are black women living
in rural areas.

High levels of poverty still prevail in most parts of our country and rural
women in particular and agricultural workers are amongst the poorest
households. The vulnerability of rural farm workers is increased because they
rely on their employers not only for their employment and wages, but also
services such as schools, housing, electricity, water and transport.
Consequently, changes in the number and quality of employment of these workers
are one that can impact significantly on poor rural households.

The key to addressing this situation is to increase employment through the
use of labour intensive technologies, improve the conditions of employment in
the rural areas and increase support to small farmers through the extension
services and research on appropriate production methods. This is what the
agency might want to pursue in its developmental course.

I have always been encouraged by the best practices I have had the
opportunity to interact with. In all instances there is an inspirational leader
who is leading the project and completely committed to it, and in most
instances these leaders who live, eat and drink that project, are women.

And if we say with insight that we have entered the Age of Hope then we must
be encouraged by these anchors who hold families, groups, structures and
organisations together at grass-roots level. It is these people who are the
gatherers, the custodians and the nurturers of the seeds of hope.

Similarly we have a collection of people here today, each with different
skills and different views on how we can advance our national project of
eradicating poverty, building national unity and cohesion among the different
people of our country.

My wish is that each of us will remain mindful of our capacity and our
limitations as individuals or organisations. And if each of us in all humility
strives to join our capacities with that of others, we will be surprised by the
incredible energy and power we are able to generate together as opposed to
being immobilised by what we cannot do.

If we focus that energy on the shared beliefs and pay less attention to our
differences, I believe that we will be astounded by what we can do with our
collective energies.

Programme director, today is a day for reflection, and not a day to make
grand plans.

Hence I want to conclude with a call made by President Nelson Mandela in
1994, when he said "we must, constrained by and yet regardless of the
accumulated effect of our historical burdens, seize the time to define for
ourselves what we want to make of our shared destiny."

Malibongwe!!!

I thank you.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Northern Cape Provincial Government
17 October 2006