MEC for Finance, Ms Ina Cronjé today addressed a contingent of men and women from all walks of life attending a two-day historic Msunduzi Innovation and Development Institute Strategic Summit, the initiative owned and governed jointly by the Msunduzi Municipality, the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Cronjé was invited to deliver a keynote address on expectations of a capital city to the summit that brought together prominent local, national and international specialists and relevant local and regional stakeholders under one roof, to develop and support a limited set of strategic projects and a process to carry them forward. This initiative will gain momentum from 2010 to ensure a thriving sustainable city by 2030.
Addressing more than 300 delegates, Cronjé said there is a need to turn around the current extreme unequal distribution of wealth and give all our people a fair chance to succeed.
She said success for the citizens and for the city lies partly in heeding the call for “one home, one garden campaign,” that was launched by the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal few months ago.
“I am delighted to see that Msunduzi Municipality has declared urban agriculture a strategic priority. This is in line with the President’s State of the Nation Address and the one home, one garden initiative that was launched earlier by the Premier, Dr Zweli Mkhize,” She said.
She said this is part of the initiatives that will address issues of food insecurity, high food prices and entrepreneurial growth in the form of exporting their produce.
Speaking at the summit Cronjé posed a question that says “does Pietermaritzburg have what it takes to succeed against other cities in the globe?"
She said the tale of pre-democratic Pietermaritzburg is actually the tale of four cities:
* The “white” city with its Voortrekker formal grid layout and the redbrick Victorian buildings
* The Raisethorpe/Northdale CBD with its mosques, temples and Indian markets
* The coloured suburbs of Woodlands and Eastwood
* Edendale valley in which more than half of Pietermaritzburg’s residents are Africans.
In South Africa apartheid has made the problems of urbanisation more complex. Pass laws made it illegal for black people to live in the white cities. Their illegal status made it impossible for them to rent a house so they often lived in a shack in the backyard of a friend. Unlike normal cities the legacy of colonial and apartheid city planning is that the poorest live the furthest from work. This perpetuates poverty, as an exorbitant percentage of our poor people’s income is paid towards travelling to the workplace.
The city that we are re-imagining today cannot be a tale of four cities. The capital city of KwaZulu-Natal needs to serve its entire people when recreating itself.
For more information contact:
Musa Cebisa
Cell: 071 687 8777
Issued by: Department of Finance, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
20 October 2009
