Speech by Limpopo MEC for Local Government and Housing Soviet Lekganyane at the handing over of title deeds, Seshego Stadium

Greetings

If there is still anyone out there who still doubts that this government is delivering on its mandate, who still wonder if the dreams of our fore fathers are still alive in our time and who still question the power of our precious teenage democracy, we say that today is the answer.

Indeed, in 1955, our famous founding fathers and mothers gathered at Kliptown to draft the Freedom Charter, a historical document whose ideals still light the whole of South Africa from Musina to Cape Town. On this revolutionary charter, a charter that was expanded by the warm blood of generations, we find a pledge to the just cause of housing the nation:

“There shall be houses, security and comfort”.

Our founders had realised as early as 1955 that our housing challenge was a national one. And accompanying this challenge was the imperative of home ownership. Under the system of the 99 year lease, the back of poverty could not be broken. The system ensured that our people did not own the homes in which they lived. The situation was deliberately made difficult for them to get title deeds, they could not access bank loans, and they could not rise from the ashes of poverty.

The system dwarfed the significance of their human hood. It was a frontal attack on their sense of pride. It was a frontal attack on their human dignity. It ensured that they continued to feel inferior to their white counterparts who were drowning in a sea of privileges. And let’s remember that not to have home ownership is to sustain continuous severe blows to one‘s mind.

Yes, everyone can see that the people of this country have traveled across the oceans of decades in search of this new life. This is the journey we continue today, and this is the journey we will hand over to future generations.

So, I stand here today to hand over 2562 title deeds. These are for the Discount Benefit Scheme. We take this time to congratulate the recipients of these title deeds, for your hearts  have for a long time been yearning for the comfort and pride of home ownership. Yes, today we pump back life into your world; we infuse you with self confidence and dignity.

Today you can feel that you are a living part of South Africa, that you are an element of that popular energy which is entirely called forth for the progress and happiness of our people. As President Nelson Mandela once said: “I surely wish the pockets of my shirt were big enough to fit all of you in. I am happy and on reaching heaven I will look for a branch of the ANC and join it.”

Together we remain the core architects of a normal society. We live up to the heroic words of Sekou Toure when he said that: “To take part in the African revolution, it is not enough to write a revolutionary song; you must fashion the revolution with the people. If you fashion it with the people the songs will come by themselves and of themselves.”

Through the facilitation of home ownership and title deeds in particular, we have set out on a quest for our true humanity, and somewhere in the distant horizon, we already see the glittering prize. May we march forward with unshakable courage and determination, drawing strength from our common plight and struggles. In time we shall all say, we have bestowed upon the people of Limpopo the greatest gift possible-self pride, human dignity, self confidence, a feeling of well being-a more human face.

Our preparedness to take upon ourselves the cudgels of this struggle will see us through. Surely, we will ultimately remove from our vocabulary the concepts of homelessness and poverty, for we have a historical opportunity to open the door to unyielding hope and the possibility of a better tomorrow. And as we celebrate this achievement, let us keep in mind that much more still need to be done.

As we consider the long road that unfolds before our people, let us sing as one that: “Homelessness and poverty, you cannot outlast us. We will defeat you, for we are the champions of the new era of responsibility. We embody the revolutionary spirit of service.  We have been called by the Almighty to shape the destiny of our people.”

We will continue to carry forth this great fruit of our freedom and deliver it safely into the hands of current and future generations. By so doing, we are protecting the dreams of our children as well as those of the founding fathers and mothers of our sacred Freedom Charter. The absence of title deeds in the hands of our people will forever be testimony to unfinished business.

For the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our army but from the power of implementing our timeless ideals which are enshrined on the face of the Freedom Charter. In the forgotten corners of our lives, our stories are singular, our destiny is shared, a new dawn is at hand and Limpopo’s beacon burns just as bright. This is our moment. This is our time. We all say South Africa, we have come so far, we have seen so much. Together we can and must do more.

God bless you all.

Source: Limpopo Department of Local Government and Housing