S Ndebele: African Peer Review Mechanism delegation visit

19 July 2006

The leader of the delegation, Prof Adebayo Adedeji, members of the Country
Review Team, it is indeed my greatest honour to extend a very warm word of
welcome to you to the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Your visit to this province is
of great significance simply because you are a mirror on which we can reflect
our image, and conduct an in-depth introspection to review our performance of
service delivery over a given period. Having already travelled to other
provinces, you have realised and appreciated the diversification that prevails
with regards to the various dimensions such as socio-cultural, economic,
political, demographical, historical, landscape and heritage symbols.

We warmly welcome you to this special province whose very double barrel name
is full of meaning. We want to thank you for including our province in the
choice of the provinces that you are visiting in your endeavour to establish
first-hand knowledge on your fact finding mission, and the actual situation as
it prevails in your interaction with the various stakeholders of the various
institutions. In our province you have the privilege of meeting His Majesty the
King, uHlanga Lomhlabathi, this afternoon; meet with the Provincial Government
Council, the Provincial Cabinet, Members of the Legislative Assembly, business
sector, religious communities, the veterans, women, children, and the
physically challenged communities.

We are a province that has known war; a province that has known conflict. A
province that has experienced the bloodbath of black-on-black violence. And,
precisely because we know war, we hate it. We know conflict, we hate it. We
know bloodbath, we hate it. We want the situation where there is not only the
absence of war, but a situation where peace and reconciliation is irreversible.
That is our commitment as the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

As you travel around in your fact-finding mission, you will see what I am
talking about. The township that you will be visiting this afternoon,
Mpumalanga (Hammarsdale), is a typical example of what I am talking about here.
It was torn apart during unrest and violence, but through reconciliatory
measures, it emerged into a relatively peaceful and harmonious township. People
in this township have buried their hatchets. They have succeeded in turning
their weapons into ploughs and hoes. They have succeeded in turning their scars
into stars. Peace and stability now prevails in this township.

You have come to a province which prides itself on hosting the 2010 Soccer
World Cup. Through these games, more job opportunities will be created. This is
a province that is highly sensitive to gender awareness with efforts to curtail
abusive actions against women and children. A province that is taking great
strides in its developmental focus. To highlight some of our vision and focus,
I would like to mention these four massification projects:

* the Dube Trade Port Project
* Operation Mbo
* the Agrarian Revolution
* the Corridor Development.

This province has also heralded a new strategic thrust of accelerating
growth and development in the economy and reduction of the gap between the
first and second economies through transforming the structure of the economy.
Our overall goals in line with the millennium development goals, which are to
accelerate growth by 6 percent, to invest more than R400 billion in
infrastructure in the next five years, to ensure that all households have
access to electricity by 2012 and also to alleviate poverty situation and
unemployment by 2014.

In my Five-Year Strategic Plans 2005 – 2010 I have highlighted some of the
following synoptic profile analysis which I would like to share with you:

* KwaZulu-Natal occupies almost 8 percent of the total land area of the
country and is home to 21 percent of the population with an urban / rural
distribution of 46 and 54 percent, respectively.
* The percentage of the households receiving incomes below the poverty line
increased from 45,3 percent in 1996 to 53 percent in 2002, with the incidence
of poverty in rural areas standing at 74 percent.
* Between 1996 and 2002, unemployment increased by 9,3 percent. Unemployment
amongst women increased by 3,6 percent faster than among men resulting in a
female unemployment rate of 54,8 percent in 2002 compared to a male
unemployment rate of 40,2 percent.
* The province’s Department of Education is the largest in the country,
catering for some 2,9 million learners, facing a backlog in classrooms of some
14 660 and with 32 percent of schools judged to be in poor physical condition
to such an extent that many need to be demolished and replaced.
* In the health sector, 69 percent of clinics are without piped water, there is
a need for 203 new health facilities whilst 265 existing facilities need to be
replaced, 1 642 need to be upgraded and 792 require rehabilitation.
* The prevalence of HIV and AIDS for the country was estimated at 14,2 percent
in July 2002. At the same point in time, the prevalence for KwaZulu-Natal was
estimated at 18,4 percent. It was estimated that there were more than 885 000
maternal orphans in the country in July 2002, with KwaZulu-Natal accounting for
26 percent of the total orphans and 35,5 percent of the total AIDS orphans.

Our strategy of interacting with the communities is to “Take the Government
to the People” through Izimbizo. These community mass gathering are often
attended by tens of thousands of people who openly and freely “talk to” the
Government on practical issues that affect them. We have committed ourselves as
government to support and encourage these “Mass Participation Programmes” which
enables us to identify the actual needs of the people, over and above the
fundamental requirements, which are clean water, sanitation, electricity,
access, schools, clinics and sports grounds.

Prof Adebayo Adedeji, I would now like to take this profound opportunity to
welcome you and all the members of your delegation to our KwaZulu-Natal
Province. You will realise that people of this province are very hospitable,
friendly and welcoming. I am therefore kindly inviting you to feel at home. We
are in a process of transformation from the previous legacy of the past to a
new bright and rosy future. I do hope that your fact finding mission, as the
representatives of the African Peer Review Mechanism will complete your
mandate, and you will in turn assist us as a province to fast-track our
transformation programme and perform better than ever before.

Welcome to KwaZulu-Natal!

Issued by: KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
19 July 2006