Programme director
My colleagues, Minister Tina-Joemat Pettersson and Premier Jenkins
The leadership of BMF
Ladies and gentlemen
I want to thank the leadership of this premier and progressive organisation, the Black Management Forum, for inviting and bestowing us with such illustrious honours.
Our mere presence and the fact that we are here to accept these honours with humility, in this my home town of Kimberly, is an open defiance of the premonition of the words of Lao-Tzu that have been extracted from his famous essay - The Way of Life; “A leader is best when people barely know that he (in this case she) exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him.”
Our line of work as public figures is understandably in the public domain and consequently we cannot avoid the spotlight that usually accompanies it. We are being driven all the time by the values of sacrifice and selflessness.
We are here because early on in our odyssey of life we opted to thread where the proverbial angels feared to thread. At the young age we had to take tough decisions. We had to decide whether or not to accept the consequences that are directly emanating from the ignominy of the abhorrent system of apartheid.
Just like the leadership of Umkhonto weSizwe High Command of the 1960s, we were faced with a situation where we had to decide whether to “surrender or to fight” in defense of what President Nelson Mandela called “our defenseless people”.
We had to choose whether or not we want to remain trapped in the comfort of our homes and, in the true and loyal spirit of carpe diem, enjoy whatever little luxuries offered – regrettably in some instances, this was and still is being done by our partners. These were the vagaries resulting directly from the spoils of the then apartheid system.
As women we took part in an act of war inspired in the main by the same dreams that drove Lillian Ngoyi, Charlotte Maxeke and the throngs of many other women who marched on the Union Buildings in 1956.
Consequently, the decision of our movement, the ANC, to place the question of women emancipation at the centre of our liberation effort contributed in no small measure to our decision to eschew the limitations brought about by stereotypes what women should and are expected to do. This has played key role in our correct decision to join the noble struggle to create a democratic and non-racial South Africa.
Samora Machel wrote a paper for Frelimo on 4 March 1973 in which he dealt with this issue of women. He said, “The emancipation of women is not an act of charity, the result of a humanitarian or compassionate attitude. The liberation of women is a fundamental necessity for the revolution, the guarantee of its continuity and the precondition for its victory”.
Machel goes further to point out that, “a woman is exploited by a man who is himself exploited, beaten by the man who is lacerated by palmatoria (how you discipline children by taking a ruler to hit them), humiliated by the man who is crushed under the boot of the boss and the settler”.
We do not use the word settler in our country as we believe that we have a unique form of colonialism of a special type where the coloniser and the colonised co-existed and lived side by side particularly during the apartheid era. This graphic description of the appalling conditions of women applies to the Mozambican reality in the same way as it applies to our own situation.
I am grateful that we have finally found time to accept this award from the BMF. I am quite aware that the BMF has been trying to engage with me even during my stint as a premier of this province. You also tried to get me to participate during the occasion of the manager of the year function as far back as 2006.
I am however relieved by the fact that I did involve the BMF in almost all the major activities I was involved in during my tenure both as MEC for Health and Premier.
As a religious person I strongly believe that things happen for a reason. We are nothing else but mere mortals and mere servants of the people (to borrow the title of Andrew Rawnsley book on the British Labour Party).
It is our love for them and their love for us that has always inspired me. This is the kind of ethos and commitment that will continue to guide me throughout the remainder of my life.
I have watched with keen interest the activities that the BMF has embarked upon since its establishment in this province. I am therefore here to pay tribute to the leadership of this organisation for taking a keen interest in the entirety of the work of government: local, provincial and national.
We are here to implore you to continue to champion the interests of black business and black professionals. We are here to reject the clamour of some of the reactionaries who are saying whither the BMF. You are here to stay – the work that you were established to embark upon is still incomplete.
The very fact that we are meeting and receiving this award just a few days before the women’s month of August should serve as a reminder of the enormous obstacles that we are still facing as we go about tackling the challenges affecting women in our country.
I would like to encourage women who are present here today to take advantage of the opportunities that our government has made available through a myriad of interventions. I am encouraging my country-women to participate in the activities of such progressive women organisations as SAWID and the Progressive Women Movement and many other like-minded structures. It is by being active and pursuing opportunities through these entities that we will indeed be able to improve the lives of our people for the better.
Coming closer to the issues of energy, we are marching ahead as the Ministry and the Department of Energy, to change and fundamentally re-organise the architecture of energy.
The very fact that we were able successfully to host the 2010 FIFA world cup on the African soil – despite the venom and skepticism of doomsayers and naysayers – is a great tribute to the indomitable spirit and the resilience of our people. We did the event without any disruption to both liquid fuels and electricity.
This brings me to the other urgent issue of ensuring that we deal with the important issue of energy independence and energy security. This we are currently doing through the IPR 2010 (or as it is commonly known IRP2) process. I am urging women organizations to take this process seriously and participate as this process will in a roadmap that will indicate the nature, investments, as well as technologies that we need in the period beyond 2020.
We are reaching, for instance, a stage where we will soon be retiring some of our power stations. This is happening at the time when we need to add approximately another 40 000 MW on our electricity grid. So we are embarking on a process that will effectively be building another equivalent Eskom. Women have to take part in this pioneer initiative.
So leadership is not about raising your voice. It is about raising your argument. It is also about inspiring those around you to achieve maximum results. The collective leadership style of the ANC has to be replicated in all spheres of our society. The BMF has a key role to play in this regard.
As we accept this award we do so mindful of the fact that we have a long way to go to realise the dreams and aspirations of the women who marched on the Union Buildings. This includes the millions of women who continue to live in conditions of extreme poverty and underdevelopment.
Finally in his book Dialectical Materialism, Alexandra Spirkin conveys a strong message: “An important element of self consciousness is awareness of the demands of society upon oneself, one’s responsibility to the community, the class, the nation, country, and finally mankind as a whole”.
Applied to this function, it implies that before taking decisions or formulating certain positions about any aspect of life, political leaders should surely factor in the demands of society.
I thank you
