ceremony of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Parys, Free State
10 November 2006
All shall have equal rights
Programme Director,
Honourable President, Mr Thabo Mbeki,
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of NCOP,
My colleagues, the Premiers of provinces here present,
Speaker of the Free State Legislature and other speakers,
MECs of various provinces,
Members of Provincial Legislatures,
Members of Parliament and of the NCOP,
Executive Mayor of Fezile Dabi Municipality, other executive mayors,
Councillors,
Traditional leaders,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
This programme of taking Parliament to the people is very well in line with
the slogan of building a peoples contract and fighting poverty and
unemployment. As a further elaboration of this mandate the President, in his
State of the Nation Address in February this year, captured the essence of the
urgent task we are supposed to be involved in around the theme of the 'age of
hope.' In the elaboration of this theme the President correctly articulated
that our people's high levels of optimism and expectation on the pace and level
of delivery in the country must not be taken for granted.
Chairperson,
We were equally warned that the realisation of these dreams and hopes cannot
be achieved by government alone. It would obviously require a dynamic
partnership between all organs of the State and society in general. Each and
every stakeholder should continue to strive to locate its rightful place and
role and we are pleased that the NCOP has succeeded in locating its place and
role in the realisation of the objectives of the people's contract. We can only
hope that the rest of the other stakeholders which would include the churches,
labour, business and various organs of civil society would in time draw
important lessons from these efforts of the NCOP and Parliament in general in
order to begin to meaningfully contribute to the call for the realisation of
all aspects which underpin this 'age of hope.'
Those of us who have had the opportunity to participate meaningfully and
benefited from the results of these interactions can bear testimony to their
importance. We as Limpopo have had the opportunity to host this programme last
year in Tzaneen, Nkowakowa, and we have witnessed the enthusiasm and fulfilment
which our people have shown. The fulfilment was in part derived from the fact
that a unique platform was created for them to interact with their elected
representatives in order for them to express their needs and aspirations. For
the whole week our people had the opportunity to interact with their elected
representatives.
In this interaction, in all the important issues which were raised,
government had the opportunity to intervene on the spot particularly on those
issues which were management related and which could be quickly addressed, and
in those areas which needed long term planning government was given an
opportunity to go back and develop intervention mechanisms.
Whilst the national imbizo programme brings together the three spheres of
government, i.e. national, provincial and local the importance of this
programme of taking Parliament to the people is the fact that another arm of
the State is brought into the equation, that is Parliament, and therefore
provides a better opportunity for all the elected representatives to appreciate
the achievements and challenges which we still have to overcome. In this type
of interaction the elected leadership of the nation begins to develop a better
a sense in the various areas of operations as to what are the achievements,
weaknesses and challenges and how we should together overcome these challenges
and weaknesses as we strive to realise the objective of a better life for
all.
Chairperson, without being instructive or to be seen to be wanting to
determine the programme for the leadership of Parliament it would always make
better sense to strive to take this type of occasions to places where there may
seem to be points of differences or disputes. If one has to make an example in
this regard the lesson that we have learned from interacting with the people of
Moutse, after a heated debate around the boundary disputes our experience is
that many disputes and differences stem from a lack of understanding or
distortion of facts. It is therefore important for the leadership to have this
dynamic contact with the people in order to clarify the position and direction
government is taking at any given time. We can confidently say that at this
juncture, whilst there may be different and dissenting viewpoints in Moutse,
those voices would definitely be a minority, which in our view their assertions
are inaccurate and baseless. Our honest assessment is that the issues they are
pursuing are no longer related to their real concerns of boundary changes or of
service delivery nature but purely political and therefore further engagement
with them would be on such a basis.
Chairperson, despite the persistent outcry about crime in the whole country
and our province in particular we hold a view that the South African Police
Service (SAPS) in the province is doing a good job. We have witnessed in many
occasions swift actions rounding up criminals and effecting swift arrests
particularly in high profile cases like cash heists and murders.
We are also proud to say that even in cases where the actual crime has been
committed outside the province, and the criminals involved choose to make our
province a hide-out, they are always rounded up and arrested. The only weakness
which we can point out which we still think we need improvement on is in
relation to shortage of personnel and logistics. We hold a view that these
issues need to be given the special attention they deserve given the enormous
security challenges related to the 2010 World Cup. The one security area we are
not succeeding as a province to put under control is that of ritual killings
and witchcraft. In the recent past we have seen an escalation of these
challenges to uncontrollable proportions; the provincial government had to put
up a police task team which was meant to review all cases related to ritual
killings. The report of this task team has since been released and we are
continuing with the recommendations of the task team in order to deal with the
scourge.
The most important recommendations from the task team are the need to
establish a specialised investigating unit focusing on occult related
activities and the scaling up of public awareness programmes. We have since
organised a three-day summit which is going to be focusing on all aspects
relating to witchcraft and ritual killings involving all the stakeholders, i.e.
traditional leaders, traditional healers, faith-based organisations (FBOs),
organised business, labour and other organs of civil society. We hope and trust
that this engagement will come out with resolutions which will go a long way in
addressing this scourge.
On the service delivery front, government is continuing with its efforts to
ensure that the basic needs of our people are met. We are continuously
evaluating and improving on the delivery mechanisms in order that we realise
the noble objective of a better life for all. Despite the service delivery
backlogs which characterise the province we are confident that the satisfactory
levels and confidence of our people in our government is continuously
increasing. As we continue to improve and expand the social security net the
hardships which our people have been confronted with are eased up day by day.
Great efforts are continuously being pursued in order to grow the economy so
that we can create the necessary jobs that can improve the livelihoods of our
people. We firmly believe that the burden of poverty and unemployment can be
reduced to tolerable levels if we don't come across obstacles which are capable
of derailing our focus and commitment.
Once more Mr President, we remain indebted to you for your capable
leadership and guidance which you have continuously provided to this nation,
the continent as well as the world. We can only say that with you amongst us,
victory is certain.
I thank you!
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Limpopo Provincial Government
10 November 2006
