(SALGA)
15 March 2007
Programme Director
Chairperson of SALGA Comrade Motalane Monakedi
Executive Committee of SALGA
National representative of SALGA
Senior government officials
Executive Mayors
Mayors and Speakers
Councillors
Representatives from the business fraternity
Representatives from the South African Football Association (SAFA)
Friends from the media
Comrades and compatriots
Delegates to the SALGA Assembly
Ladies and gentlemen
It is exactly a year ago, when the masses of our people voted in numbers to
affirm the landslide victory of the People's Movement, the African National
Congress (ANC). The mandate the electorate gave us must be translated into
action, where the ANC manifesto said 'A plan to make local Government work
better for you.' Further the President's message to the entire public was
"Power to the People through Democratic Local Government Elections."
The ANC President Thabo Mbeki, on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of
the formation of the ANC pledged that "the ANC will have to continue its
leadership of the democratic movement to unite and mobilise the South African
people for the decisive and qualitative progress towards realising the
objectives arising from our commitment to achieve a better life for all our
people."
"The President further pronounced and dedicated this year as the year for
the intensification of the struggle against poverty."
It is against this backdrop that the mandate and the election victory that
we attained in the 2006 local government elections of making local government
working better for our people, must strive to resolve the challenges of
poverty, underdevelopment and unemployment.
Programme Director,
The challenge this assembly is facing is to respond to the President's call
to the battlefield in advancing and consolidating the gains that we have
achieved so far and realise the dreams and aspirations of the masses of our
people.
Recently the Department of Local Government and Housing which I am
privileged to lead, has held a successful Sanitation Symposium which was held
in Polokwane Bolivia Lodge.
The key and fundamental issues were prioritisation of sanitation and water
issues in our Integrated Development Plans (IDP). As a Department we have
realised that issues of sanitation were peripheral if not non existence in the
priority list of the municipalities. The Symposium drafted a programme for
implementation and inclusion in our planning forums and the Integrated
Development Plans of municipalities. We therefore urge delegates that our
approach as we discuss and review our IDPs, reference must be made to
integration of those resolutions.
We conducted a Municipal Communicators' Workshop yesterday which amongst
other issues, deals with challenges of communication by ourselves elected
councillors. We have adopted a programme that we call 'My Councillor and
I.'
The programmes strategic objective is to create a platform for Mayors and
Councillors to interact on live radio to intensify the fight against poverty
and to enable members of the community to talk around issues of social
development to accelerate service delivery.
My Councillor and I programme will strive to highlight projects or
developments that are taking place at community level. This will strengthen
partnerships with communities that will result in a practical improvement of
the quality of people's lives at a local level.
It will show case our seriousness about service delivery and dispel the
notion that we are not prepared to listen to the views, concerns and the
complaints of the communities we represent.
As a member of the Executive Council of the Department of Local Government
and Housing I am privileged to spearhead the campaign at the provincial level.
Equally District and Local Mayors will do so in that sequence.
The Chairperson of SALGA Limpopo will spearhead the programme on behalf of
the organisation. We need to correctly identify our target audience and use the
most understandable language that communities will understand to enable the
messages to be well put across.
We have recently, as District Municipalities, held successful Summits in
order to align ourselves with the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy of
Government.
These summits are geared towards responding to challenges of pushing back
the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment. Further, in implementing these
resolutions, we will be responding to our 2014 targets, those of reducing
unemployment by half.
Our progress report must honestly reflect on the achievements we have so
far, challenges we are facing and what practical and realizable programmes we
need to put in place to resolve the current challenges and contradictions.
Programme Director,
As we take stock of programmes transversed across the past year, we must
equally plan for the benefits and job opportunities that will accrue to the
Limpopo province by hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
It is not Polokwane as a host city that will benefit alone from this event,
but the whole province will, ranging from tourism, infrastructure development
and job creation.
It is in this breath that I must announce to this assembly comrade
chairperson that we are hosting a delegation from Malaysia in the province and
they have been visiting some of our municipalities to assess what are the
challenges that are faced by our people and what areas of investment and
co-operation they can venture into in order to assist us in reconstruction of
our province. The delegation consists of senior government officials, highly
experienced engineers and Information Technology (IT) gurus led by Dato Napsiah
Omar who is a former National Minister. The delegation will be leaving our
shores tomorrow.
Programme Director,
It is incumbent upon us to make follow ups and learn more about their
country and the skills that they can offer our province especially
municipalities and business people to advance their own potentials and those of
our communities.
As we conclude this assembly we must develop clear action plans with time
frames that will guide our developmental agenda and strive to push back the
frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment. Our people will not wait in
perpetuity and it is my firm belief and that of the ANC that time to deliver is
now not tomorrow.
I wish this conference a success in your deliberations and the outcomes that
will further entrench the spirit of development forward.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Limpopo Provincial
Government
15 March 2007
