Programme director,
The President of Contralesa, Kgoshi Setlamorago Thobejane, Chairperson of the Limpopo House of Traditional Leaders; Members of Provincial legislature,
Executive Mayors and mayors, All councilors present here,
Your Majesties and Royal Highnesses – our Kings
I bring you the greetings of the leadership of our government, in particular from the Premier of our Province, Ntate Chupu Mathabatha.
The Premier had wished to share in the beauty and delights of this day with you; however because of pre-scheduled commitments he has requested me to represent him here today.
We are in our 20th year of the emancipation of our country from apartheid rule; I refer here to the evil system that has undermined the institution of traditional leadership with undue political interference in matters of royalty.
As evidence of our collective commitment to democratic ethos and values, our country has just recently went to yet another successful national general elections.
In this regard, the Premier has already extended his appreciation to the role played by traditional leaders across the country in ensuring free, fair and credible elections.
We can say without a fear of contradiction that working together with traditional leadership; we have managed to make advances on many fronts in our struggle for the reconstruction and development of our country.
Of course, the first of these advances is the entrenchment of the democratic system itself. With your support and guidance, the contest for political power in our country is not accompanied by desperate measures such as resort to violence as we see in other parts of our continent and the world.
The truth is that our freedom and democracy is owed to the selfless sacrifices of various traditional leaders. Most of these leaders went as far as choosing death than to serve a system that was inherently designed to make a Black man a perpetual slave in the land of his birth.
We are also aware that because of defiance to the unjust apartheid system, many of our leaders were dethroned.
Part of the first assignment of the democratic government was to right the many wrongs of apartheid committed against our traditional leadership. Our struggle is therefore, also a struggle to restore the dignity of our traditional leaders and the dignity of the institution of traditional leadership itself.
The opening of this Provincial House of Traditional Leaders is part of efforts crafted to retain the prestige of the institution of traditional leadership.
Programme director,
It is worth noting that despite the many challenges we have inherited from the past system, our government has made admirable progress in affirming the rightful place for traditional leaders in our governance system.
Together, we have also made progress in building a South Africa promised in the Freedom Charter.
Today South Africans are equal before the law. South Africans are no longer citizens of pariah state that condemned them to live in a twilight zone at periphery of the family of humanity.
We are celebrating freedom that has been meaningful to many of us in many ways.
I know it as a matter of fact that; as traditional leaders, you are celebrating because in our freedom you too have found freedom. Your institution has been affirmed as an integral part of democratic government.
As I have already said; our freedom is owed to the wars of resistance fought by many of our traditional leaders. I talk here of the struggles of warriors such Kings Sekhukhune, Makhado and Ngungunyane. Today we can safely say their resistance was indeed, not in vain
As a government, we try hard to live-up to the mandate of the constitutions to support and work with the institution of traditional leadership.
I accept that in some areas we have faced challenges and difficulties; however it is pleasing that nothing has been above our collective resolve to work together
The rousing development that has taken place in most of our rural villagers is owed to the good working relationship between ourselves as the government and yourselves as traditional leaders.
Like I said already, since this government took over, our determination to undo the apartheid damage on the institution of traditional leadership has been unwavering.
To that effect we promulgated the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act that saw the establishment of the Houses of Traditional Leaders at all levels of governance.
The legislative framework we have put in place has opened the doors of opportunity for municipalities and traditional councils to work together in strengthening local economic activities and protecting heritage.
The challenge is for you to seize these opportunities that have come with freedom for the benefit of Limpopo and her people.
My leaders,
We work together with you because we accept that you have an important role to play in the socio-economic development of our province.
We accept that no development and no fundamental change can ever take place without the input of Traditional leaders.
We are always willing to tap into your wisdom as we confront the complex challenges of governance and relations with our communities.
Last year we organised the Traditional leadership Indaba to amongst others assess the extent we have gone in supporting and improving the institution of traditional leadership.
The Indaba also sought to establish mechanisms to deal with challenges that continue to confront traditional leaders on daily basis.
The Premier has echoed that the interactions during that Indaba were very helpful for the provincial government.
Maaparankwe,
While admitting to some difficulties, mostly owed to financial constrains, I believe that we are on the right track in carrying our constitutional mandate of supporting the institution of traditional leadership.
The establishment of the Houses of Traditional Leaders has created a unique platform for Traditional Leaders to freely engage on matters of societal interest and advise government accordingly.
We have also managed through Seriti Commission, to ensure that the salaries of Kings and Senior Traditional Leaders are standardised. In the same vein we have developed a Policy Prescript guiding the remuneration of headmen, Indunas.
In this regard I am also happy to announce that we have paid all salary arrears which were owed to traditional leaders in accordance with our agreement in May.
I am also delighted to announce that we have made a breakthrough in terms of Medical Aid for traditional leaders; to put it clearer, all traditional leaders will be participating in the Government Medical Aid Scheme known as GEMS.
Programme director
We also note and celebrate the fact that our traditional leaders are actively participating in our municipal councils. Your participation at this level of governance continues to add value to our efforts to improve conditions of living of our people.
The process of refurbishment and construction of new traditional authority offices is continuing as planned. We have appointment staff in all traditional authority offices and this has greatly helped improve the administration of traditional communities.
Programme director,
As I conclude,
Allow me to extend our government’s most sincere appreciations for the leadership role you played during the recently finished season of Initiation Schools.
It is because of your leadership that initiations schools in our province remain the safest.
I also wish to challenge you to guard against those things that are done by some unscrupulous people in the name of our culture. You are the only reliable custodians of our heritage and culture, without you our identity will be lost forever.
I also wish to once again congratulate you on the opening of this important House.
I hold no doubt that this House will become a reliable arsenal of cultural heritage and tradition.
Working together we can achieve much more.
Indlovu ya hina! Ndaa!
Pula!
