KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu has paid tribute to the South African Hindu Maha Sabha for promoting friendship and unity amongst the people of this province. He was speaking last night during the FNB Diwali Festival in Durban.
“I offer you on behalf of the Provincial Government, my greetings and my warm wishes as we celebrate the holy festival of Diwali. Times like these are dedicated to reflect on what has gone before and reconnect with the light which lies within us.”
“During this Diwali season we need to pray for the transformation of our society into one nation united in diversity. We need to increase our consciousness of the ways in which light can triumph over darkness. My hope is that in this spirit of looking to the light, we should find reconciliation where there has been division and hurt.”
“Bound together as we are in the new South Africa, we need to recognise one of the most powerful potentially constructive elements – Nation Building. This government is determined to promote unity because we believe that this is the only way of creating a compassionate society.”
“Unity can be achieved if we celebrate together national days such as Diwali, Rosh Hashan, Eid, Heritage Day and many other days of importance in our lives. This year all the people of this province from all races gathered in Port Shepstone to celebrate Heritage Day. It was quite inspiring to see diverse cultures in display.”
“You will recall that last year we celebrated this day Chatsworth. It was day in which all South Africans celebrated who we are; one people one nation with many cultures. We demonstrated as we marched through the streets of Chatsworth that we are indeed proud children of a united South Africa. We made a statement that we accept our diversity and that we respect different cultures and different religions and faiths.”
“We might come from different backgrounds, but the success of that day convinced us of the imperative to forge unity and a sense of a common destiny for all. As we celebrate Diwali, I want to emphasise the point that as government we are committed to promoting the culture of peaceful coexistence, political tolerance, fighting racism and xenophobia and promoting equality, non-sexism, non-racialism and access to justice.”
“This must also be the daily task of all leaders in our society. We are heartened by the fact that organisations such as South African Hindu Maha Sabha is at the forefront of the promotion of the peaceful co-existence. We are committed as government to working with the leadership of South African Hindu Maha Sabha in order to drive socio-economic development in our province.”
“As government we have on-going interaction with leaders of different communities such as religious leaders and traditional leaders through various forums because we have realised that whilst government has committed massive resources in the development of infrastructure and service delivery, there remains a great need to join hands in ensuring that government programmes are understood, accessed by our people and communities are empowered to monitor their effectiveness and whether such resources ultimately reach the grassroots communities to whom they are destined.”
“We are strengthening of cooperative government and we are building relationships and partnerships with municipal leaders through various forums for co-operation and coordination such as the Premier’s Coordinating Forums. The Premier’s Coordinating Forum seats regularly and I have requested a meeting which is scheduled to take place in due cause. This meeting will be attended mainly, by mayors of various district municipalities across the province and is aimed at assessing service delivery.”
“Since taking over as the premier I have committed myself to maintaining good working relations with political parties and I want to ensure that there are regular confidential briefings in the legislature with leaders of these parties on matters of service delivery.”
“Yesterday I had an honour of addressing members of the South African Police Service during the Service Excellence Awards. In my address I committed this government to making available all the necessary support to ensure that we win the fight against crime. Importantly, I assured that that the provincial cabinet will continue to invite big business and members of society to work with police to make in difficult for criminals to operate in society.”
“Provincial Government has a multi-faceted strategy called a “The united front against crime”. This strategy is aimed at preventing and eradicating crime from our society through active mobilisation of all stakeholders and combined effort of all Government departments.”
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