Speech by the Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services Hlengiwe Mkhize on the occasion of Heritage Month celebration at Zandspruit, Honeydew
Mrs Emily Langa,
Mrs Zandile Mdladla,
Namhla Siqaza, HOD Sports Arts and Culture,
Mr Nthlane Bopape, Zonal Deputy Chair
Introduction
It is an honour for me to have been invited to come and share with you in this celebration of the heritage month. The theme for this year's heritage month is "Celebrating 20 years of Democracy:-Tell your story that moves South Africa Forward". This indeed gives us an opportunity as a nation to celebrate the life changing transformation that we have seen in this country in the past 20 years.
As we move our country forward, it is import to reflect on our culture which is an untold story. It should not just end with the beautiful attires which we have put on today in celebration of heritage day. Our diverse culture should help us in promoting social cohesion amongst ourselves and also help us to deal with the social ills in our different communities.
Our democracy is still at its youthful age and this affords us an opportunity as the society to sop up the values which our democracy subscribes to.
On the other hand our Constitution, promulgated in 1996, provided the foundations for building a democratic and inclusive state and is undeniably one of the most progressive in the world. While we acknowledge that it did not take a day to build Rome, we are of the view that things such as inclusive society and an inclusive economic growth are critical and should be achieved almost immediately.
Our democracy is anchored on the following pillars:
Constitutionality
We subscribe to non racism, non sexism, social justice, fundamental human rights and the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom as listed in the Bill of Rights, a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. South Africa’s path to mention building allows individual culture, languages and identities to become building blocks of a greater whole.
People-centeredness
Our policies and the constitution are people centred. They demand that we respect all our people, honour our integrity and be committed to service delivery.
Co-operative government
Our constitution and policies calls for co-operation within different spheres of government.
Professionalism and good institutional governance
Our constitution demands that as the government we should be accountable and transparent, provide value for money, be customer-focused and strive for the highest service quality for the benefit of the entire nation.
Celebrating Heritage Day
In an address marking Heritage Day in 1996, former President Tata Nelson Mandela stated:
"When our first democratically-elected government decided to make Heritage Day one of our national days, we did so because we knew that our rich and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our new nation."
Compatriots,
From the onset the celebrations of heritage day were meant to bring this rainbow nation together. How then do we say that we are building a nation if we still have high levels of violence as a nation? How do we say that we are building a nation if we still have high levels of child rape? How do we say that we are building a nation if we still have gruesome murders of young children?
It is just disturbing to learn that over 161 000 people were murdered in South Africa since 2004 and nearly 16 000 people were murdered in SA in the twelve months between 2011/12. This cannot be right and cannot be allowed to continue in the same country whose main is that of building a nation.
Comrades,
The good stories which are told of our two decades of freedom is a confirmation of our unwavering commitment of creating an equal society, where black people are not made to feel sub-human or as secondary citizens in the country of their birth. This has been the logic, for instance, that has underpinned initiatives such as the distribution of social grants which puts real money in the hands of millions of unemployed South Africans so that they, too, can put a warm meal on the table for their children.
Gender-based Violence
Fellow comrades,
Joining hands as men and women, we must as a nation strongly condemn gender based violence. It does not matter how culturally diverse we are as a nation; each culture has an element of respect towards a fellow human being. Gender-based violence includes all forms of rape such as gang rape, wartime rape and date rape, also domestic violence, incest and family killings. In our country it also includes other cultural practises that affect women negatively such as ukuthwala, muti killings and burning of those suspected of being practicing witchcraft.
Today instead of uplifting and informing our communities; social networking making use of tweets, sms messages make it possible for abusers to abuse their victims throughout the day.
Research shows that a high proportion of men admit to having committed some form of violence - be it physical, sexual, emotional or economic at one point or another of their lives. I am sure that no culture will promote such actions. Our great-great grand-parents lived using the same value systems which our diverse cultures embodies but we were not told of incidents of the rife violence against humanity like the ones we experience today.
One would wonder why it will be a fact that: “the third highest cause of death to pregnant women is homicide or murder". To add to this, figures from the Medical Research Council indicated at one point that “every six hours in South Africa a woman is killed by her intimate partner”. What is wrong with our society? We need to go back to the value systems which were used by bo-ngono ba rona. There is just no way that we can go on neglecting the value systems which we know that they have been tried and tested in the past.
How we care for babies and young children affects their future health and development. We must take it upon ourselves as the society to see to it that we play an active role in the up-bringing of our children complete with living standards that we know are applicable in our various societies. The government on the other hand will be playing its role.
Government provides support to children to fight child poverty. More than 10,5 million children benefit from the child support grant, while we provide foster care benefits to over 563 000 vulnerable children. Government subsidises close to 800 000 children at early childhood development centres to enable children from poor households to obtain early education. In addition, more than 8 million children at primary and secondary schools benefit from school-feeding schemes.
Among the solutions proposed by experts in the field such as Gender Links for dealing with this scourge, is advocacy programmes that are targeted at “changing women’s and men’s attitude towards gender relations”. A concerted effort is required to promote outreach for the campaign against gender-based violence to rural areas in particular including farming and mining communities.
Fellow compatriots and comrades,
You will agree with me that South Africa inherited high levels of poverty and it continues to be confronted with unequal and often inadequate access to resources, infrastructure and social services. Since the dawn of our democratic government much has been done to reduce the high levels of poverty, the most skewed inequalities in the world and the widespread joblessness which we inherited when we took over.
Our evolution as a society has required us to be as vigilant and as aggressive in implementing credible institutional mechanisms and strategies, such as the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) Strategy, Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA), New Growth Path and National Development Plan. All these policies were designed with the aim to reverse the negative socio-economic impact of the former regime, not only that, but also catapult our ability to deliver services to our people within the context of available set of skills in the 21st century.
Economic Progress Made
Trade and financial sanctions and internal political instability contributed to the poorest ten year growth performance (1984 - 1993) since the Second World War. It is an undisputed fact that the decade since 1994 saw an improved growth performance particularly when compared to the previous ten years. Measured against average standards of living as reflected in real GDP per capita, South Africa has done quite well, with an increase of 33% since 1994. South Africa realised sustained acceleration in private sector investment from 8% of GDP in 1992 to 14% in 2008, after which it levelled off at 13% of GDP in response to the recession at that time.
The sustained acceleration in private sector investment can be attributed to new business opportunities, increased competition, a predominantly business-friendly and fairly predictable policy environment and a reduction in the cost of capital all of which were as a result of the new democratic government. Measures to promote the transformation of the economy, for example black economic empowerment, affirmative action and stricter labour legislation, and have also been an imperative for stability and offset in business models.
Our inherent cultural values can also be used to brand South Africa by creating the work ethic which will result in radical inclusive economic activities and ultimately help us reach our job targets whilst realising equity in our society and uprooting poverty completely.
Our own Heritage as an economic asset to our country
The New Development Plan (NDP) which is the country's vision until 2030 encourages us to us our heritage and culture as an asset to generate employment. Our country is home to nine world heritage sites and an area of global niche tourism. According to the assessments made by the Planning Commission; culture, the arts and other parts of the creative economy have the potential to generate employment and export earnings. Foreigners from other countries visit South Africa to see, understand and learn about its peoples and cultures. The arts and related creative economy sector are thus an asset that needs investment to provide opportunities for more people, often outside of the formal economy.
In support of employment and growth, the following will be pursued in the plan:
- The retail sector will be encouraged to procure goods and services aimed at stimulating local producers, and especially small and expanding firms.
- Further investigation will be conducted on opportunities to stimulate sustainable small-scale retail and cooperative buying, with the aim of reducing costs in townships and rural areas, and stimulating related employment.
- South African retail operations in the region will be encouraged to supply stores with South African products, and also be supported to develop suppliers within the region in support of regional industrialisation objectives.
- Information technology-enabled service exports will be promoted, with the aim of attracting United States, United Kingdom and Indian business-process outsourcing. South Africa should become a leading provider of information technology-enabled services globally, with services integrated into the region.
- Rising consumption of the lower-income groups in South Africa and the region should stimulate retail employment and demand for supplier industries. The tourism industry and the creative economy sector are labour intensive, and stimulate the growth of small businesses. They can develop other spin-offs, such as foreign direct investment and the crafts industry. Increased airline competition would help lower costs of travel.
The Good Story to Tell
Ladies and gentlemen,
The scenery in our governance space of our country has realised some considerable transformation subsequent to 1994. It has been a long and tiring journey but it is one of our good stories to tell. Yinde le ndlela.
It is through processes such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that we have achieved this progress today as a nation. In any situation where hostility, violence and war have divided the people, made them enemies and there is distrust and misunderstanding prevailing amongst them; national reconciliation will be a precondition to building that nation.
We must not forget about things like Freedom Park which is our heritage shrine. This is a memorial and sanctuary conceptualised to pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for human rights and their country during South Africa's turbulent history. This was initiated with view that a heritage site such as this will bring healing to the nation.
Not only have we in the past two decades enjoyed our freedom but we have also seen some significant progress in bringing better service delivery to all. The emergence of democracy in 1994 created a new dispensation in which access to basic services such as housing, water and sanitation was recognised as a fundamental human right. The Bill of Rights enshrined the right to basic services and commanded that the state must take reasonable measures to achieve the progressive realisation of these rights.
Another good story to tell is the assumption of leadership roles by women. We all know that because of the patriarchal systems of the apartheid government, there were few women in leadership positions in either the public or private sectors prior to 1994. The results of the 2013 Report of the Commission for Employment Equity paints a sobering picture of our achievements. Women representation in top management positions across the country stood at only 20.6 percent in 2013. This is a constant reminder to women that we still have a long journey to go.
Comrades,
When we say that the two decades of our democracy have been indeed a good story to tell, we do so with the reality that since coming to power in 1994, the state has built 1,4 million housing units, providing more than 5 million people with secure homes.
Education continues to receive the lion's share of South Africa's national Budget, with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announcing in February that 20 percent of government expenditure for 2014/15 will go to education, amounting to R254-billion.
The Government spending on health care is expected to exceed R492-billion over the next three years as South Africa strengthens its system in preparation for the implementation of a National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, as the 2014 budget highlighted. To realise the vision of the NHI, the ANC government plans to build 43 hospitals over the next five years and at least 213 clinics in the 11 pilot districts for the country's proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme.
Conclusion
Education is a weapon to change the world, so said Tata Madiba. I cannot emphasise how much each and every child should access quality education and critical skills through early childhood development programmes until the tertiary education level with the available artisans’ programmes. Girl children in particular should be kept at school irrespective of the circumstances. Es’kia Mphahlele believed that the regeneration of African consciousness is essential to real African development and progress. African consciousness arises from the norms and values inherent in the traditional way of life. The education our children are receiving today should not alienate them from us, instead it should be such that our norms and values are reinforced.
Let us all celebrate this heritage day with the promotion of human dignity in our minds whilst upholding the good value systems embodied in our various cultures.
Giving the heritage speech in 2006, the former President Thabo Mbeki said “Indeed, music permeates all walks of life and has been a powerful instrument and tool commonly invoked in various occasions and circumstances, good and bad, joyful and sorrowful”
Our music and food makes us good people and this should instil a sense of pride to our young ones. Our indigenous belief systems can also be used in nation building and promoting social cohesion.
I thank you.
