during the occasion of the Professional Management Review (PMR) Business
Breakfast, Mafikeng
4 December 2006
Programme Director,
Members of the Executive Council,
Mayors present here today,
Mr Johan Hattingh, Managing Director of PMR Africa,
Business representatives,
Government officials,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am honoured and humbled to be delivering an address during this important
occasion. I must also thank PMR most heartily for hosting this Business
Leaders' Breakfast, whose objective, among other things, is to celebrate
excellence in business leadership.
Ladies and gentlemen, I stand here before you satisfied that as a country
and province, we have made massive strides in our effort to expand access to a
better life for all. As a result of our work in the past few years, we are
today able to say boldly that despite the many challenges that remain, we are
succeeding in bringing dignity to many South Africans.
Acting together, we have made decisive advances over the past twelve years
and our goal of building a South Africa that truly belongs to all is now firmly
within reach. We continue to register good progress in our effort to broaden
access to basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are meeting here today to pay tribute to
distinguished businesses, organisations and teams that have made a contribution
in the ongoing effort to grow the economy, ensure good governance, banish
poverty and expand access to a better life for all. They are an inspiration to
many of us as a result of their success and uncompromising commitment to
excellence.
On this special day, we want to salute these special organisations and
corporate citizens who continue to occupy the front trenches in the struggle to
ensure that all our people can say with confidence that our country belongs to
them too.
Indeed, the organisations and businesses that are being recognised during
this special occasion today fully appreciate the critical role that they need
to play in the reconstruction and development of our country. I am confident
that other organisations will emulate your example.
It is with great humility that I will receive the Diamond Arrow Award as the
"Most pro-active political figure in the province during the past 12 months." I
wish to congratulate all the companies, institutions and individuals who will
also be receiving awards this morning. Indeed, today is a celebration of
excellence, hard work and success.
The greatest danger of receiving an award of excellence is that complacency
tends to creep in as the recipient may assume that they have achieved all that
is needed and therefore become complacent. However, we in the North West
province believe that awards of this nature serve only to spur us to aspire to
even greater heights.
Today's occasion must not only be about celebration. It is during occasions
such as these that all patriots of goodwill from various sectors converge to
share ideas and experiences on how, together, we can unleash our collective
energies and resources to advance the historic objective of building and
sustaining a more just and prosperous society.
Accordingly, today's Business Leaders' Breakfast is an important platform to
reflect on the long road we have traversed over the past twelve years and to
ponder the road that still lies ahead as we begin the first decisive steps of
our march towards the Second Decade of Freedom.
The greatest challenge facing our country and province is job creation and
poverty eradication. Through our Provincial Growth and Development Strategy, we
have made a commitment and undertaking to confront and defeat these twin
challenges with every available energy at our disposal.
We made all these commitments, mindful of the fact that government alone
cannot overcome the challenges of poverty eradication and job creation. It is
for this reason that our clarion call is for a "people's contract" so that our
collective wisdom and muscle can be brought to bear on all the scourges that
make it difficult for many of our countrymen and women to taste the fruits of
our liberation.
Consistent with the spirit that informs our Provincial Growth and
Development Strategy, we are firmly of the view that, acting together, no
challenge is insurmountable. Undoing the legacy of deprivation and curing the
socio-economic ills that still afflict our society require the efforts of all
of us. It is not government's problem alone, it is not business's problem
alone, it is not civil society's problem alone. It is OUR problem! On behalf of
the provincial government, I wish to make a call to all organisations to join
us in our national project of rebuilding our country.
Ladies and gentlemen, during the month of October and November, we embarked
on an imbizo programme. Last weekend, we had the privilege of hosting President
Thabo Mbeki in the Southern District. It was yet another platform for direct
interaction and dialogue between ordinary people and their elected leadership.
We have heard the inputs, concerns and plight of many of our people.
The story of our people as told through the imbizo programme is that despite
their current difficulties, they continue to have unrelenting confidence in our
young democracy and an enduring hope that tomorrow will be better than today.
They know as a matter of fact that their human dignity will one day be restored
and that today's pain will give way to a brighter tomorrow.
It is this confidence and hope amongst our people that must constantly
remind us of the urgency and critical need to work together and with greater
pace towards the realisation of the goals that we have set for ourselves in the
Growth and Development Strategy.
Both government and business have a duty to ensure that we respond
positively and practically to the plight of all our people. History has placed
a responsibility on the shoulders of all of us to help reverse the legacy of
our ugly past.
Whilst we are calling on our partners to play their role in the
reconstruction and development of our country, on our part, we continue to work
hard to ensure that the state machinery has the capacity and capability to
discharge its mandate. We have put together a more hands-on, proactive and
decisive administration that will ensure faster and more effective
implementation of our developmental agenda.
We also believe that the LOCAL level is a convergence point where service
provision should be strengthened. Hence our new agenda of making Local
Government function efficiently and effectively. We must all ensure that the
sixty five (65) actions that we have identified as the provincial government
are discharged with the requisite effectiveness and efficiency.
These support actions range from improving the capacity of the province and
municipalities in terms of personnel, financial management and quality of
services to actual provision of services, particularly those related to meeting
the millennium goals.
Perhaps, I must take this opportunity to inform you that the provincial
government, as part of the overall objective of ensuring that the public
service responds appropriately to the needs of citizens, we will be hosting
awards that have a similar objective as the PMR awards on the 14th of December
2006 - the Premier's Public Service Excellence Awards. The awards are an
attempt to honour and pay tribute to those in our province who have committed
themselves to serving our country and its people with selflessness, honour,
humility and distinction.
It is our firm belief that the major goal of public service must be to help
ease the burden of poverty on the shoulders of the poor. It is for this reason
that we continuously seek to build a cadre of public servants who are able and
willing to lend a hand in the national effort to fight poverty and create
work.
A strong public sector will be able to lead a sustained onslaught against
the legacy of deprivation. It is only appropriate that those who remain true to
the ethos and agenda of the new public service be recognised and
appreciated.
In conclusion, we wish to thank PMR for driving and managing these awards,
which recognise excellence in service. Indeed, this initiative is very crucial
because it contributes directly to the growth of our country by ensuring that
all of us maintain excellence in service delivery.
Finally, I would like to congratulate the recipients of today's awards and
urge them never to tire nor falter in our collective quest to change the lives
of all our people for the better. What more inspiration do we desire in our
communities than to see these men and women at work?
Winners make commitments
Losers make promises
Winners go through a problem
Losers say, "Nobody knows"
Winners always have an excuse
Losers say "It's the way it's always been done"
The Winner says "It may be difficult, but it's possible"
The Losers says "It may be possible, but it's too difficult"
Winners are always involved in the answer
Losers want to be considered experts before knowing how little is known
Winners learn from their mistakes
Losers learn only not to make mistakes by not trying different
The Winner says: "Let me do it for you"
The Loser says: "That's not my job"
The Winner sees an answer for every problem
The Losers sees a problem in every answer.
Acting together, we can and must, approach the future with confidence.
I thank you
Issued by: North West Provincial Government
4 December 2006
