ceremony to accept the conferment of the Freedom of the Municipality of
Lukhanji, in the Eastern Cape
2 December 2007
Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Premier of the Eastern Cape
MECs, Executive Mayor of Chris Hani District municipality
Executive Mayor of Lukhanji Municipality
Councillors
Leaders of Political Parties and Community Leaders
The residents of Lukhanji
Ladies and gentlemen
I am honoured and indeed humbled by the warm welcome accorded to me by the
wonderful people of Lukhanji. Indeed I am profoundly indebted to the people of
Lukhanji for this great honour they are conferring on me today. I therefore
wish to thank you and the Council of Lukhanji, Mr Mayor, and through you, the
people of Lukhanji municipal area at large.
It is a great pleasure to join you in this gathering and to share these
memorable moments with you. Importantly, I feel humbled to be counted as one of
this city's citizens. This community deeply appreciates the value of freedom
and understands the costs involved in its attainment. Not only did your area,
Lukhanji, experience some of the worst effects of apartheid oppression in all
its crude manifestations, but had also endured the dehumanising conditions of
colonialism since European settlers set foot on our shores back in the
1600s.
The granting of the Freedom of Lukhanji to me resonates with special
historical significance. I had the privilege to reside in this very community
as a young boy of nine and ten years, learning and playing in Scanlen Street in
the home of my maternal family. It was in this very town of Queenstown that the
1954 Conference of the ANC was held and the basis for the Freedom Charter was
laid for adoption at Kliptown some 52 years ago.
This town has played host to such great leaders as Dr Albert Luthuli, and
former President Nelson Mandela and I am humbled to be able to share the
history with such giants of our country. The conferment of the freedom of
Lukhanji makes me a fellow citizen with such great residents of this town as,
among others, Harry Tembani, Margaret Mcingani, Victor Ndlazilwane, Darryl
Cullinan and Justin Kemp.
It is right at an occasion such as this to salute those citizens who have
gone before and in particular to salute those who laid down their lives
fighting for the achievement of the liberation of our great country. We salute,
particularly those who died in the Bulhoek Massacre, the shootings at the South
African Police Station in 1960 and in the Queenstown massacre of 1985.
These selfless freedom fighters could never live side by side with the
horrors of apartheid, racial discrimination, economic exploitation, gender
oppression and the choking dust of poverty and under-development engendered by
the cruelties of colonialism and apartheid. Clearly, these cadres of our
struggle did, through their quest for human freedom, signal the revolutionary
maturity of people of Lukhanji of which all of us are proud today.
This proud history imposes on all of us, the responsibility to continue with
the struggle to ensure a better life for all our people through carrying out
the task of implementing the transformation agenda. Indeed, it would be an
insult to this glorious legacy, which was handed down to us through sacrifices
of life and limb of our heroes and heroines, to allow acts of corruption,
crime, grime and greed to play themselves out unchallenged, in the process
paralysing development and the lives of our people.
The fluttering flag of freedom from apartheid should never be stilled by the
ill wind of economic stagnation as well as lack of delivery of essential and
basic services to the communities of this municipality. In the overall scheme
of things municipalities such as Lukhanji have great potential to contribute to
the growth and development of our country through growing local economies and
the building of public infrastructure, thus stemming the tide of migration,
which would deprive local economies of much needed human capacity.
I am confident that this town, its people and institutions, have and will
continue to contribute to the enrichment of South Africa's history. I trust
that the residents will continue to contribute to the transformation of our
great nation by their commitment to high ethical and moral standards in
everything they do. During this second decade of democracy all of us, through
building partnerships with government, business and civil society, should
direct our efforts at expediting the transformation of our economy and
consolidating social cohesion.
Indeed, our nation cannot fully enjoy the fruits of democracy or reap the
benefits of racial equality until all its people can effectively contribute to
economic growth, share in the resultant economic gains and create the
conditions for the eradication of poverty. In this regard, the challenges of
raising the levels of literacy, coupled with the need to equip our people with
requisite skills consonant with the demands of the modern economy and society
demand a never-ending co-operative process driven by all stakeholders.
Achieving these common national goals, consistent with the ideals of our
constitution, poses a strategic challenge of visionary leadership at all levels
of society, spanning the three spheres of government. I am confident that such
hard-working leadership committed to our national strategic objectives does
exist in this municipality.
Chairperson,
Your educational institutions such as Queens College, which will be
celebrating its 150th Anniversary in 2008, will continue to have an important
role to play in educating our young citizens as well as positively impacting on
growth and development in our country. Our institutions of higher learning face
a challenge of positioning themselves to accommodate post-apartheid societal
aspirations, among which are to develop and cultivate our future leadership and
impart the requisite technical know-how.
Further, society looks to the contribution of the institutions of higher
learning as the repository of ideas to help build a society that nourishes
national and social cohesion. Primarily, we are hopeful that Queens College and
other institutions in Lukhanji will produce graduates armed with skills and
knowledge necessary for the growth of local economy in this and surrounding
areas.
Chairperson,
This Municipality has shown its ability to achieve greatness, and has some
impressive catalogue of accolades to this end, but cannot rest on its laurels
for the demanding task of growth and development is unending. This culture of
achievement needs to be deepened and sustained so that the momentum of change
in the lives of our people neither slackens nor stops. Yet we can only maintain
the golden standards of service delivery through leadership fired by a clear
vision and motivated to end the poverty that grips many of our people.
Such leaders must necessarily be firmly committed to the eradication of all
forms of deprivation, including joblessness and homelessness, personally
dedicated to the values of Batho Pele. These very leaders must form
partnerships with the local business communities and government institutions so
as to achieve the Economic Development of this area. Most importantly, we also
need a local government leadership that considers it its duty to mobilise
communities behind the vision of our government.
Broad consultation and popular participation in the drafting and
implementation of Local Economic Development programmes serve as pre-conditions
to advance towards the achievement of our overall development objectives. I
believe some of the challenges in this municipality require the municipality to
revitalise the economy, to develop a strategy on how to re-establish the
agricultural sector and create cooperatives for the empowerment of local
communities, as well as the re-opening of the closed factories at Ilinge, Sada
and Ezibeleni.
Chairperson,
It is my fondest wish that the honour bestowed on me today will serve as a
source of inspiration to all the young people of this area to redouble efforts
towards attaining education as a means of empowerment. Equally, if the
leadership of the Lukhanji Municipality remains firm in its resolve to fight
poverty and eradicate the detestable legacy of apartheid in all its shades and
to continue striving for a better life for all, this award, so graciously
conferred on my person today, will have served its purpose.
Thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
2 December 2007
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)
