E Rasool: Launch of Mthimkhulu Village Centre

4 March 2007

I want to greet the very diverse and big community of Kleinmond, of the
Overstrand and the Overberg. I think today we come together not simply because
of a vision by people like Sally Timmel and Anne Hope. It's the hard work that
they have done that have brought us all together and that we are able not only
to bless, but to launch the centre that the Deputy President has come to see
today. I think it speaks about the power of people who are committed, who have
an idea of what life can be, and more importantly it speaks about the energy
and the commitment to turn an idea into a reality, of the kind that we see here
today.

I think that while immediately this Mthimkhulu Centre will be of service to
the people of Kleinmond, it will be a model for the people of the Western Cape,
if not indeed of South Africa. So thank you very much for giving us an idea
that I think we will learn from as time unfolds. And we need these models of
sustainable living and of sharing economic growth. This Western Cape for
example has the highest growth rate in the country of 5,7%. What we were
struggling with is the sharing of the benefits of that growth.

We have had phenomenal growth over two years, for example in construction.
From 5,8% of the province's share of the economy to just around 10% today. We
have had a phenomenal growth in the number of tourists who visit us. Last year
alone 1,6 million foreign tourists visited the entire Western Cape and 3
million domestic tourists. The majority of people who are here will be right to
ask how have we benefited. It's not because we don't want people to benefit, it
is often that we don't have every idea about how to make it work. And I'm very
happy that the idea of sharing growth is a problem that falls directly onto the
lap of the Deputy President. And I am sure that she is here because she needs
to learn from every good idea that can work because we are all looking to her,
not simply for her own original guidance, but for pulling together all the
different ideas across the country, evaluating them and putting them into a
systematic way in which the whole country can learn from a small example in
Kleinmond today and to make it available to all of us so that we can learn from
the best examples that are there.

And I am very happy that you have succeeded in giving the Deputy President
yet another model of how things can work. But you know Deputy President, I know
that when we meet as government we speak about how to share the benefits of the
first economy, how to ensure the sustainability of the second economy. But if
you go around here, you will also find a third economy. That's the economy
that's on the border of legality and illegality. That's the economy where
people make entire plays about how to steal abalone. Hier sing mense songs van
hoe om die perlemoen uit die water te gaan haal en dit stil te kry by die
Chinese. And what it says, wat dit se vir ons is that unless we are able to
learn these lessons and unless we are going to have centres like the Mtimkulu
Centre teaching us how best to share the first economy and how to get the
second economy going, we may find that people by themselves will turn to that
third economy as a way out of poverty and a way out of misery.

Dit is waarom ek hier is vandag, omdat ons kan leer en vir die mense, nie
net van Kleinmond nie, maar van Kleinmond, Hawston, Gansbaai, Hermanus en al
die plekke waar die perlemoen so lekker is, om al die mense te se die regering
is nie blind en die regering is nie doof vir die armoede wat hier is nie, ons
het nie onmiddellik al die oplossings nie, maar ons is daagliks en nagliks hard
besig om oplossings te soek. We are looking for those solutions and we want to
find ways of supporting initiatives like the Mthimkhulu Centre so that you can
have hope that you don't have to turn to that third economy in order to get a
living for your children. That I think is the message of hope that Anne and
Sally and Bulelwa are giving out here today, and we are asking you to please
stay with us as we go forward.

Before Bulelwa stands up to warn me that my time is up, I have heard the
Mayor lobbying for a high school. Now we know that there are primary schools
here and we know that there are buses that take the high school children to
neighbouring schools. Die vraag wat gevra moet word hier op Kleinmond, wil ons
`n hoerskool hier he of dink ons � do we think that Kleinmond must be the site
for an Further Education and Training (FET) college in marine culture, aqua
culture and parts of the hospitality industry? Will those hard skills better
help the young people of Kleinmond?

And that's the challenge that I think we are putting forward. And maybe we
can live with the buses that take our children to high schools, but maybe the
long term benefit is in thinking, and I'm sure MEC Dugmore will be able to take
what I throw out very spuriously here and hopefully turn it into a hard concept
and hard negotiations with the people of Kleinmond. The last thing that I want
to speak about here is that more than the economics, more than the skills, more
than the sustainable living examples that will come out of here, I'm hoping
that this Mtimkulu Centre will help us in realising the vision of the Western
Cape to become a home for all. Ons wil s� die Wes-Kaap, `n tuiste vir almal.
And if it can start from a centre like this, and the African community who is
thrown to the margins in the informal settlements, the Coloured community in
the township and the White community along the beaches, if we can just make
sure that we find each other, then already this centre would have done a major
job.

We need people to come together because this Overstrand � and the Mayor
knows it � this Overstrand probably contains the 5% of the richest people that
the country has, because this is where people retire to. How do we use not only
their wealth, but also their skills and their mentoring as we go forward? How
do we build that solidarity amongst the people here? Hoe bou ons daardie
eenheid tussen veral Bruin en African in Kleinmond, sodat ons hier kan sien dat
mense mekaar kan vind. We have got to send out a message from a small place
like Kleinmond that people can find each other, African, Coloured and
White.

And the best way to find it, I've been amazed, I've grown up with a Koranic
verse in my head in which we are told that God says I have blown of my Spirit
into you, that each one of us carries God's Spirit. I was amazed two weeks ago
to discover that in the First Epistle of John, I think it is chapter 4 verse 3
in which it is said "Who lives in love, lives in God, and God in them." And
then concludes and says: "Herewith you know that I have given you my
spirit."

Now if world religions all agree that each one of us carry part of God's
Spirit in us, carry part of that godliness in us, carries that divinity in us,
then that must be the basis � not political theory, not simply economic theory,
not philosophy, but the very fact that we�ve got to recognise each other,
respect each other, accept each other, work with each other, because we see
ourselves and each other as fellow carriers of the Spirit, of a part of that
divinity, of a part of that godliness. That must be able to make us work
together.

And maybe this laboratory that Kleinmond has become today is going to be a
laboratory that must teach us lessons as we go forward. Sally, Anne, Bulelwa,
well done to the grail and thank you very much for the hope and the example
that you set out today. Madam Deputy Speaker, thank you for being here.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Western Cape Provincial Government
4 March 2007