Programme Director
Honourable MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Ms Nandi Mayathula-Khoza
Honourable Minister for Rural Development and Land Reform, Mr. Gugile Nkwinti
Executive Mayors
Members of the Mayoral Committees, Speakers, Chief whips and Councilors
Traditional Leaders and Representatives of the Traditional House
Council of stakeholders
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
Dumelang, Molweni, Sanibonani, Gooie More, Good Morning,
The African National Congress (ANC) 2009 Manifesto states “The pursuit of household and national food security is a constitutional mandate of the ANC Government. We have to create an environment which ensures that there is adequate food available to all, now and in the future, and that hunger is eradicated.”
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Hunger and poverty are detested by millions the world over. Unfortunately, very few nations and people have managed to escape its grip and free themselves from the poverty trap. In South Africa, decades of colonialism and Apartheid resulted in millions of African people living under extreme poverty and being reduced to animals living in a country of their forefathers.
African children were born into poverty, grew up in poverty, spent their twilight years in poverty and subsequently died in poverty. Being African meant being subjected to harsh sub-human living conditions, sub-human working conditions, sub-human health facilities, put simply, being African meant being confined to the lowest strata of society imaginable to any human being.
And in the midst of all this hardship and poverty, there lay on the periphery, a significant proportion of mankind who continued to eke out an existence in the most abject conditions of material deprivation. And those were African people living in rural areas.
In 2009, the ANC Manifesto also stated “Despite significant progress made over the last 15 years, people living in rural areas continue to face the harshest conditions of poverty, lack of access to land and basic services. The ANC is committed to a comprehensive and clear rural development strategy linked to land and agrarian reform, improvement of the conditions of farm workers and farm-dwellers and build the potential for rural sustainable livelihoods”
Based on our commitment to improving the lives of communities in rural areas, President Jacob Zuma launched the national Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP) in Muyexe in August 2009 to address poverty in rural areas of South Africa. In 2010 the Gauteng Province embraced rural development by adding it to the mandate of the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD).
Ladies and Gentlemen
The importance of rural development in a province like Gauteng, which is predominately urban, cannot be over-emphasised. More than 70% of South Africa’s population lives in rural areas while 30% live in urban areas, but in Gauteng 96%live in urban areas and 40%in rural and peri- urban areas. Unless concrete and time bound programmes are formulated and executed to deal directly with the problems of rural poverty, rural-urban migration is likely to grow, creating more informal settlements and posing more problems for urban developments.
As a Province we are committed to improve the quality of lives of people living in the identified rural nodes within Gauteng. For rural dwellers, this translates to having access to affordable basic needs, such as water, sanitation, infrastructure and health care. Any initiative towards realising human development and reducing poverty in a consistent and sustainable manner should involve the people concern. (and I am glad that today all facets of rural communities are represented).
This implies that all stakeholders, communities, individuals, households, firms, organisations and associations are best positioned to know their social, political and economic problems and needs, as well as their environment, cultural and spiritual aspirations. As Government, ours is to provide an enabling environment and effective institutional framework that puts people at the centre of development.
Our people should be empowered to guide the rural development process and influence it towards the direction and speed they perceive it requires so as to be in tandem with their current and future aspirations.
This therefore means that the role of community and individual initiatives is of paramount importance.
Local economic development is another facet critical in improving the conditions in rural areas. This means that public, business and non-governmental sector partners must work collectively to create better conditions for economic growth and employment for themselves and generations to come. The aim is to improve the quality of life for all. Sustainable and effective local economic development, therefore must contribute to the delivery of the Government’s strategy of poverty alleviation by helping farmers and others living in rural areas to respond better to consumer requirements and become more competitive, diverse, flexible and environmentally responsible.
Such interventions, Ladies and Gentlemen, must also provide help to local economic businesses and communities which need to adapt and grow.
Another critical component of poverty alleviation in rural development is tourism, as reducing poverty requires pro-poor growth and tourism is one of the biggest industries in Gauteng and provides income generating opportunities. Tourism, ladies and gentlemen can be labour intensive, inclusive of women, youth and the informal sector. There is also a need to increase the net benefits for the poor from tourism and ensure that tourism growth contributes to poverty eradication
However, it is imperative to note that while addressing the issue of poverty alleviation in rural communities, we also address the issue of land reform. Land reform is critical not only in terms of providing historical redress for centuries of colonial settler dispossession, but also in terms of resolving the national democratic revolution in South Africa. It is through land reform that social and economic relations – embodied in property relations – in rural areas are to be transformed. It is in this context that we should take interest on the National department of Rural Development and Land Reform green paper process intended to address the land question
Compatriots
Gauteng’s agricultural sector is geared to provide the cities and towns of the province with daily fresh produce. A large area of our province falls within the Maize Triangle. While the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality and the Districts of Metsweding, West Rand and Sedibeng hold important agricultural land where ground nuts, sunflower, cotton and sorghum are produced.
Food, agro-processing and beverages make up around R9.9 billion of the province’s economy, with half of South Africa’s agri-processing companies operating in Gauteng. New and competitive niche products under development include organic food, essential oils packaging, floriculture, medicinal plants, natural remedies and health foods. This therefore means, that, growth in the agricultural sector does have a greater impact upon poverty reduction than growth in other sectors.
Moreover, agricultural growth spills over to other activities in the rural economy. But, it is important Programme Director to highlight that the impact of agricultural growth on poverty reduction depends upon the extent to which the poor participate in this growth.
As Government we have committed ourselves to ensuring a better life for all our people, through the policies and programmes we implement. As our President announced in the State of Nation Address, that government will be embarking on a massive infrastructure programme to ensure that communities in rural areas access services and development that will improve their quality of lives.
Programme Director
To ensure we achieve our goals, it is imperative to note that education and skills development is an integral part of developing a diversified rural economy. One of the millennium Development Goals relates to the achievement of universal primary education whereby children are afforded the opportunity to complete primary schooling. As the ANC led government, we made among our key priorities Education and rural development as we are cognisant of the fact that one cannot happen without the other.
I am therefore pleased to announce that in a few weeks, the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will be launching the West Rand Agricultural College.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Let me state that poverty alleviation and rural development cannot take effect if we work in silos, we need to forge meaningful partnerships to ensure that we eradicate poverty in Gauteng. As Government, we are committed to improving the lives of the millions of South Africans who through decades of Apartheid were subjected to abject poverty and left living on the periphery. We must ensure that we bring all our communities into the mainstream economy and ensure that poverty is eradicated and communities uplifted in rural areas.
Programme Director
In closing, allow me to highlight some of the current rural development initiatives under taken by Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) departments:
Gauteng has identified four rural nodes where rural development initiatives are being implemented: Hekpoort, Bantu Bonke, Devon, and Kwa-Sokhulumi. Bantu Bonke is under the administration of Midvaal Local Municipality and was previously a farm-worker housing compound. Devon rural area is administered by Lesedi Municipality. Kwa-Sokhulumi, under Tshwane Metro, is proud of having successfully fought its land claim.
In Gauteng, six other rural nodes will be identified in future to bring to ten the total number of rural nodes in the province.
Bantu Bonke Rural Node Projects
The Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) and other provincial departments and stakeholders, such as the National Development Agency, Anglo American, Rand Water Foundation, MGIDI Agricultural Development, Midvaal Local Municipality and Vaal University of Technology, are using agricultural production under greenhouses to respond quickly to unemployment challenges in Bantu Bonke.
The sponsorship of this project includes land, greenhouses, a small office, juju water tanks, agricultural extension services, marketing, project management skills development and funds to run the business. The project benefits 20 previously unemployed women and men, who now provide for their families’ basic needs using income earned from the project. They have also gained agricultural production and business management skills.
Devon Rural Node Projects
Working together with Lesedi Local Municipality and other partners, the Department of Local Government and Housing has built and continues to build hundreds of houses for Devon Rural Node residents, who greatly appreciate the life-changing opportunity to move permanently out of tinned houses into well-built and comfortable homes.
Other Devon Rural Node projects include the road construction and re-gravelling work covering a nine-kilometre distance.
Hekpoort Rural Node Projects
In the Hekpoort Rural Node, GDARD, the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development, and other provincial departments and private sector stakeholders support rural projects ranging from a cemetery for disadvantaged residents, food gardens in schools and Homestead yards, water supply, poultry production, disaster management in the form of public education around the threat of lightning and floods, and female farmer support.
Kwa-Sokhulumi Rural Node Projects
With a high rate of unemployment and located far from essential socio-economic services, Kwa-Sokhulumi Community residents deserve a better quality of life. GDARD is addressing Kwa-Sokhulumi challenges, working with several provincial departments, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, Tshwane Metro, NGOs and the private sector. One such project involves the summer-crop production project that includes maize production on a 400-hectare piece of land belonging to Kwa-Sokhulumi Community, following a successful land claim.
The Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development recently responded to Kwa-Sokhulumi’s development needs by constructing a multi-purpose community centre that should be completed in less than three years. This facility will be used by both the community and government departments to hold consultative development meetings and to exchange important information on socioeconomic development and challenges in the area.
National Rural Youth Service Corps Programme in Gauteng
The National Rural Youth Service Corps (NARYSEC) aims to create jobs, while preparing the country's youngsters to become better people and promoting development work in their communities.
Designed to complement the government's job creation model, the project is aimed at creating employment and uplifting rural areas with services and infrastructure.
More than 1 055 Gauteng youth were selected to participate in NARYSEC in 2011. Apart from benefiting from their monthly stipends, the youth also gained valuable skills, preparing them to enter the mainstream job market. They were trained in disaster management and other socio-economic development skills, such as conducting needs-assessment surveys in rural areas.
This year, 850 Gauteng youth will benefit from the NARYSEC Programme. Potential candidates for 2012 NARYSEC Programme have been shortlisted for interviews. This demonstrate GPG’s commitment to empower the youth to be developers of their own rural communities and effective future leaders
Working together, we can indeed do more.
Dankie. Ngiyabonga
