Programme director
Executive Mayor of the City of Matlosana: Cllr Ofentse Mogale
Mayors and Councillors present
Deputy Chairperson of SALGA North West
Leaders of big and small business
Academics present here tonight
Senior Managers in government
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Good evening to you all.
To the Executive Mayor, I say: Thank you very much for extending an invitation to my office to this wonderful occasion.
It is indeed an honour, to spend time and mingle with stakeholders and people across the spectrum at this level.
More especially when everybody under one roof is passionate about transportation with a firm believe that transport and road infrastructure in particular; will forever be the backbone of our economy.
These are inseparable twins.
The timing of this two-day conference, or the Traloba Transport and Logistics Indaba, to be more precise, could not have come at the better time.
In fact, we must applaud the organisers for the perfect timing of such an indaba. I hope it was not by coincidence.
This Indaba, which tonight winds-upactivities of day one of the programme before tomorrow’s session, comes hard on the heels of the launch this past Sunday, of the national launch of the Local Government Election Manifesto of the ruling party, which was hosted by our province in Rustenburg.
Three days before that, until Saturday, there was a Transport National Lekgotla in Cape Town which took important decisions which must also inform your two-day gathering here.
On Wednesday, 23 February, our Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordan, tabled the Budget for 2011 in Parliament.
That was preceded State of the Province Address delivered by own Premier, Mme Thandi Modise on February 18 after the President Jacob Zuma, set the tone with State of the Nation Address in Parliament on February 10.
Programme director,
I am deliberately making reference to the above mentioned events that took place in the past few weeks, to illustrate the point I made earlier with regard to the perfect timing of this indaba.
Therefore, much as I may have missed the opening session of this indaba, one would expect that the purpose of this indaba, including of course all inputs thus far, found expression and were informed the respective policy directives I have referred to above.
Central and very critical also, programme director is:
How will all that has been unpacked now by this collective, and that yet to be unpacked tomorrow during day two session, assist this province to address the serious challenges of poverty, unemploymentand skewed the evident skewed development compounded by rural nature of this veryprovince which is hosting you.
Job creation is critical and you need to specify how- as individual participants and also as a collective- will reach your targets to create employment or jobs for sustainable livelihoods.
Distinguished guests,
This reminds me of what our Premier, Mme Thandi Modise said on November 25, after she announced her new cabinet in Mafikeng:
She said:
`This assignment - referring also to a number of challenges our province faced- requires a team of men and women who not only understand their political mandates but also:
Their broader constitutional and nation building mandates. Knowing where our people live, means knowing what they need.
Knowing what their needs are, means knowing how to respond. Knowing how to respond, means knowing what will create a better life for them.''
Programme director,
As a collective assembled in this beautiful city under the flag of Traloba for a transport and logistics indaba for two days:
Do we know where our people live and know what they need?
Do we really know how to respond to their needs?
How will all what you have done and yet to do create a better life for our people?And how will all the wonderful ideas and presentations from this Indaba help us to work smarter, harder and differently?
Distinguished guests,
My portfolio, as provincial MEC for Public Works, Roads and Transport take marching orders from the Premier of the province, the President and the ruling party. There is no confusion or contradiction about that.
The mandate itself is momentous and that goes with challenges most of which I must say we have overcome and continue to deal efficiently with the loose ends.
Therefore our goal moving forward as a country is very clear.
`We want to have a country where millions more South Africans have decent employment opportunities, which has a modern infrastructure and a vibrant economy and where the quality of life is high.
We all have a responsibility to work hard to make this a reality. Everyone must think of how they can contribute to the jobs campaign through creating opportunities for themselves and others.
I need all of you here by my side, to assist my department and province on the goals which I have said are very clear. We cannot do it alone. It is through partnerships and working together because working together, we can do more!!!
This very same district which is hosting this Indaba does not have commuter transport.
There is an airport at the provincial seat of government which is also a capital of the province, Mafikeng.
Regrettably, there is no flight to, or from anywhere in the country to capital of the province.
Assortments of people from all backgrounds have approached us, promising this and that, only to vanish in thin air.
You may have to discuss this matter with your aviation fundis here including off course many other issues I have touched on.
Let me caution,
We cannot and should never fall into a trap of forever debating and arguing about the formulas and development of strategies to address poverty, unemployment, this and that.
Our people have heard enough! of that. They have heard it many times before!!!
This is now time for implementation, regular and proper monitoring and evaluation of what we are supposed to be doing. If there is a better time to get our hands dirty and be seen to be putting shoulder to the wheel to push back the frontiers of poverty and in partnerships that time has now arrived.
In conclusion programme director;
There is no way that a potential investor would risk by putting his money where the road infrastructure looks pathetic.
As government, we are pulling all stops to revive our road maintenance programme and to roll-out the road infrastructure nationally as part of the R6 billion allocated countrywide.
North West will also take the lead.
We will make pronouncements in few weeks time on how we take the process forward.
The National Department of Public Works has also made a commitment to repair ten (10) bridges in various parts of the province that were damaged during the recent floods.
This is an opportune time, for the think tanks into this hall, to begin to come forward find space in our establishment and tell us how and where you can can also assist.
We need implementable suggestions from all of you so that we can do better, deliver quality and improve the lives of our people.
I thank you for the opportunity; my door will forever be open for constructive inputs from all of you.
I also wish you, the best of the best for the reminder of your programme which ends tomorrow.
Ke a leboga! God Bless!!!
