honourable Z Dlungwana, on the occasion of the gala dinner marking Social
development Month, launch of Poverty Alleviation Projects and Seminar on
Sustainable Livelihoods
16 October 2006
Honourable Members of the Executive Council,
Honourable Members of the provincial legislature,
Honourable MECs of Social Development,
The Director-General of the province, Director-General of the national
Department of Social Development,
Heads of Departments of the Free State Provincial Government,
Heads of Departments of Social Development,
Executive mayors and councillors,
Representatives of local government,
Marena, dikgosi, le mafumahadi,
Members of the business fraternity, non-governmental organisations (NGOs),
community-based organisations (CBOs) and faith-based organisations
(FBOs),
Members of the media,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Earlier today we witnessed the piloting of an alternative framework to
fast-tracking processes of institutionalising poverty alleviation, thus
ensuring food and the broader notion of human security for our people. The
emphasis in this small but noble idea of building human solidarity for
collective security and peace is the idea of a modern practice of what would
otherwise be pre-modern modes of survival. Our people are being taken back to
the stronger elements of their heritage, mechanisms that held our society in
tact for centuries on. Today's event and the deliberations of the next two days
should mark a process of actualising what many have thought about and never got
to the point of doing. This is the notion of targeted development, which is
essentially about planning and allocating resources based on needs as expressed
by communities themselves. This approach and the shortfalls that it may have
should serve to inspire us to deepen the levels of community participation.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is critical that we communicate our development
initiatives as government to the communities that we serve and learn to work
with them. This is so as to proactively counter negative perceptions that this
government does not care for its people. By simply doing this we are able to
inspire our people realistically but most importantly we are able to work on
the good practices that we have been inculcating over the years. This also
enables us to share our knowledge with others with a view of exchanging the
best of what we know with the best that they can offer. I am happy that during
the day we were able to learn of the experiences of the people of the Eastern
Cape, Northern Cape as well as the interest that other provincial government
departments have in the issues that determine the survival of our
communities.
Ladies and gentlemen, communicating our initiatives to our people and
working with them should always be a defining element of our work. By being
transparent we are able to win the confidence of our partners and watchdogs
alike. Everybody will know what we do, why and how we do it? In the process it
becomes easier for us to account to the people that we serve but also it
becomes easier for us to refuse to fail in our initiatives.
I am hopeful that our people will understand that it is their duty to work
with diligence and commitment so that when we come to evaluate as part of
monitoring whether they are doing in the projects what they said they will do
when asking for funding, it does not become a painful exercise nor something
that leads to declining levels of trust. Rather this must be seen as a
deliberate attempt at raising levels of integrity and meaningful partnership
between the state and society.
Our people must be oriented towards understanding that as government, we do
not just wake up and do things. Our actions are based on expressed needs which
must be budgeted for. These should also be aligned to government policy.
The events of today are in a sense our practical application to the pursuit
of full employment and decent work for all as advocated by the 45th session of
the United Nations (UN) Social Development Commission.
This must serve as evidence of the bundle of benefits that our integrated
efforts both at home and abroad can yield if we work together in partnership to
build communities that are self-sustaining. It is our responsibility as
government to ensure that we mobilise our communities towards ethos that would
eventually guarantee us of food security, the promotion of shared equity
through establishment of community based development co-operatives, income
generating schemes and importantly the linking of grants to development.
At the beginning of this year, our country declared that this was to be the
year in which faster growth would be shared by our people. As we declared this
we went on to say that because every day South Africans of all races, sex and
creed are waking to an increased number of opportunities everyday this then
served as sufficient evidence that we have entered the "age of hope".
Ladies and gentlemen, the launching of poverty alleviation projects as we
witnessed during the day should then inform the deliberations of the seminar
that is starting tomorrow. These must interrogate the models of development
that are being implemented elsewhere, to say what our projects can benefit in
terms of knowledge and capacities.
I am confident, yet delighted that our people are in every way witness to
the birth of a prosperous future.
Let us join hands and see to it that by next year the work done to date is
improved by further unleashing social and human potential of our communities.
We are indeed, at the helm of building strong communities towards a socially
cohesive Free State. Our regime of care must therefore be seen in all aspects
of our lives and be felt by increasing freedoms for the children, the youth,
the elderly, people with disabilities and all vulnerable groups.
Ke a le leboga ba gaetsho.
Issued by: Department of Social Development, Free State Provincial
Government
16 October 2006
