N Balindlela: Provincial Day of Thanksgiving

18 December 2006

Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature
MECs present here today
Mayors and Executive Mayors
Traditional Leaders
Leaders of political parties
All faith based organisations
Business leaders
Organised labour
Ladies and gentlemen

It is my singular honour and privilege that I am addressing you this morning
on this very important day in our province, the day of thanksgiving. This day
offers us a collective opportunity to thank God for what has happened in our
province, our country and our continent in the year that is now coming to an
end.

It is crucial, Programme Director, that we should locate this day of
thanksgiving within the context of the Day of Reconciliation which was
celebrated throughout the length and breadth of our country this past Saturday.
The Project of Reconciliation represents to us South Africans a special
watershed as a people contemplating our history as we seek to move forward and
rebuild our country as a united people committed to change and prosperity.

It is my belief that we cannot fully appreciate the road that we have
travelled if we do not keep alive the memory of all those who suffered for
justice, peace and freedom in our land. In that vein I do wish to acknowledge
today the vision of our government in founding the fountain of memory through
the Freedom Park Trust project. The Trust traces the sacrifices of our people
through the eight periods of conflicts that occurred in our country.

Those conflicts included pre-Colonial Wars, Genocide, Slavery, Wars of
Resistance, Anglo-Boer/South African wars, the World War I, World War II and
the Struggle for Liberation. Isikhumbuto that was unveiled by our President on
Saturday at the Freedom Park is a striking symbol of this fountain of memory.
It will allow all of us to participate as a society in the project of nation
building.

Closer to home though, I have to thank all of you for having blessed me and
the provincial government, which I have been given an honour to lead, with your
unwavering support. This year has again been challenging, but it has also been
successful to the extent that we have taken a step forward in partnering with
the people of our province in realising the livelihoods that we could have only
dreamt about a decade ago.

When we started this term of governance and in my State of the Province
address at the beginning of this year we asked you to support us with prayer
and goodwill as the people of the Eastern Cape. Your response has been
heart-warming. As the government we have felt your support. Your views and your
vibrant participation in public debates on matters that drive governance have
been valuable and have kept us focused in driving the agenda that is truly
pro-poor.

Several poverty alleviation projects and initiatives have been carried out
in the province in the year that is now coming to an end. The Premier's Poverty
Alleviation Fund has enabled a number of organisations; particularly the
community based ones led by women, to access information and resources. We are
aware that much more help is needed and there are those organisations which we
have not even touched or impacted upon.

These organisations are as important for building social cohesion as they
not only address themselves to the improvement of better livelihoods, but they
are part of the very necessary social fibre of our communities. The
establishment of the Charlotte Maxeke Fund, whose very important work is going
to be rolled out in the New Year, is a promising project which takes the
opportunity of eulogising our struggle heroines while we improve the
livelihoods of the poorest households in our province. It is a sad fact that
the poorest households continue to be predominantly headed by women in our
province.

We hope that the fund will, in some small way, contribute to dignifying the
lives of women in our province by creating opportunities for vibrant economic
participation by women. We are grateful for the pledges of support to the Fund
by the private sector. We hope that the fund will continue to grow as a symbol
of resistance and self-improvement reflecting the lifelong dream of Charlotte
Maxeke.

We are also very happy that the statistics that were released this year show
that our province has contributed significantly to the number of jobs created
in the country. The Eastern Cape has contributed 25% of these jobs mainly
through the agricultural sector. The agrarian transformation programmes within
the Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP) are clearly beginning to bear
some fruit. We hope to sustain and improve this trend in the future. In
particular, we are very hopeful of the massive growth of the agricultural
sector as whole as we begin to roll out the much awaited Umzimvubu Basin
Project in the eastern part of the province.

In all our endeavours we remain challenged by the scarcity of skills in
critical growth sectors of our province. However, we also know that there is a
lot of under-utilised skills and expertise in our province. As such, we have
been speaking to public and private sector retirees and attracting them back to
come and share their skills in building the economy of our province and
capacitating those parts of the administration that continue to face skill
shortages. We want to thank these senior citizens and other volunteers of our
province, who in the true spirit of Vuk'zenzele, are rising to the challenge of
working with government in addressing underdevelopment.

We hope that the private sector will continue to partner with us in this
venture. The role of government in promoting a facilitative environment for
attracting investors has been rewarded with numerous trade missions to our
province this year. The intentions of diversification of the auto-sector, as
expressed in the PGDP, are rapidly and systematically being realised. The
recent Alcan investment at Coega represents the strongest form of affirmation
of our province by the foreign investor.

We hope that this and other direct investments that happened recently in our
province, including Steinhoff from Germany, among others will stimulate more
confidence among other investors. Programme Director, provincial government
recently launched a Service Charter for our province. The service charter is
our government's promise to you the people of our province about the quality of
service you can expect to receive from our officials. Each of the departments
will be publishing the sector service standards before the end of the financial
year.

We invite you to work with us and to give us your views as we pursue our
path to continuous improvement of service delivery. As a developmental
government, driven and informed by the will of the people, we are mindful that
we will only succeed if we work hand in hand with all our partners. We need to
combine all our efforts, talents, approaches and capabilities to reverse the
conditions of marginalisation that are still experienced by a significant
number of our people.

The year that is ending has reaffirmed to us that it is only through unity
of purpose that we can achieve the targets that we have set for ourselves in
changing for the better, the lives of our people. We again place ourselves in
your hands as the people of this province. We are mindful of our limitations,
but strengthened by the promise of your support.

In conclusion, I wish to thank all of you for gracing us with your presence
today and I wish all of you here as well as all the people of our province a
happy, safe and a blessed festive season and a very Prosperous 2007.

Thank you

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
18 December 2006
Source: Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecprov.gov.za)