KwaZulu-Natal Premier Mr Senzo Mchunu today emphasised the need to ensure unity among Africans when he delivered his speech at the opening of the African Renaissance Conference in Durban today.
“This conference is held on an important day in the calendar of the African continent, wherein we celebrate what has come to be known as Africa Day. Fifty Two years ago, leaders of the independent states of Africa met on this day in Addis Ababa, and signed the founding charter of the Organisation of African Unity,” said Mchunu.
He said the continent observes this day as a celebration of African Unity at home and in the Diaspora, and as a moment to recommit ourselves to work towards the full integration of Africa. Mchunu said among the primary objectives the generation of Kwame Nkrumah and Haile Selassie had, was to co-ordinate and intensify the co-operation of African states in order to achieve a better life for the people of Africa.
Mchunu said the recent acts of violence against foreign nationals living in the country “went against everything we stand for as a society and undermined the progress we have done as a continent in building unity and integration of our countries and economies”.
“When violence manifests itself due to intolerance and discrimination against other human beings on the basis of their origin, the whole of humanity is the main loser. As we look into the role of entrepreneurship in the development of our continent, we must not limit this to economic entrepreneurship but extend it to social entrepreneurship that will advocate for tolerance education and search for lasting solutions to the prevailing challenges of migration.
“As the 21st Century unfolds, we are faced with a different set of challenges and opportunities for our countries and our continent. Our major task now, is to achieve development and eradicate poverty, which holds back aspirations of the people to fully realise the fruits of independence and freedom. Poverty is the singular greatest challenge of this century. It erodes all necessary capabilities for those entrapped in it, to enjoy a life of dignity,” said Mchunu.
Our search for solutions and any set of interventions we make, must be centred on education as a tool that can enable individuals and communities to extract themselves from poverty.
He said since the dawn of independence, Africa has grappled with the challenge of under-development, which has bred poverty and inequality. This was further deepened by challenges of governance deficits, endless conflicts leading to deaths and displacement of millions of people, policy implementation failures as well as brain drain.
But he sees great opportunities in the continent as a frontier of development. On this score, he said “Africa is certainly ripe for commercial engagement and the intensity of engagement with the global South has been on the rise. Our province has great potential that still needs to be unlocked. We want to unlock such potential, particularly in the areas of agriculture and agro-processing, maritime industry, renewable energy and biotechnology.”
Mchunu said there are areas of potential investments that need to be harnessed. “Countries like China, India, Russia, Brazil and the gulf states are bringing in fresh capital and massive infrastructure development. With all this growth, we still have certain prohibitive challenges. These are at a level of soft infrastructure, i.e. education and social services which are poorly developed.”
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