Environment Khabisi Mosunkutu at the Abattoir Rating Scheme Awards
15 November 2007
Programme Director, Mr Buyile Mdladlana
Executive Mayor of the host city, Mr Duma Nkosi
Representatives of political parties present
Members of the Mayoral Committee and Councillors of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan
Council
Head of Department, Dr Steven Cornelius
Government officials present
Participants and award winners in the Abattoir Hygiene Rating Scheme
Entrepreneurs and stakeholders in the meat industry
Invited guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is a pleasure for me to again participate in this ceremony and to honour
our important stakeholders in the meat industry. I wish to thank the organisers
of the occasion for inviting me to partake in tonight's revelry.
Assailed, almost on daily basis, by dozens of newspaper headlines about
avian flu, swine fever, New Castle disease and other health hazards, it indeed
feels good to be among people who closely relate their business interests with
due consideration for hygiene and the safety of the public that consumes their
products. There obviously exists a dialectical relationship between this
consideration by entrepreneurs and our provincial government's objective of
building healthy, skilled and productive communities.
Today we are here to honour entrepreneurs who voluntarily associate
themselves with the vigorous Hygiene Assessment System procedures that form the
main foundation of the Abattoir Hygiene Rating Scheme. Their participation in
the scheme makes their products easily marketable both to the local and the
export markets. By competing in these markets, they also, consciously or
otherwise, are further contributing to another Provincial goal that of enabling
faster economic growth. I again wish to applaud the participants for these
contributions.
I am also delighted by the fact that we have, in this gathering, informal
and unregistered meat operators as well. Maybe we all need to welcome them not
only to this gathering but perhaps also to the notion of increasing the number
of operators whose businesses meet the vigorous Hygiene Assessment System. With
them as partners, the realisation of our goal of building healthy, productive
and sustainable communities is guaranteed.
Exposing these operators to the competitive advantages of aligning their
operations to these high standards will also increase the possibilities to
successfully combat diseases such as the avian flu, swine fever and the New
Castle disease. We certainly have an interest, as government, to have them also
belonging and participating in awards such as this Abattoir Hygiene Rating
Scheme.
I am informed that representatives of supermarkets in Gauteng were also
invited to be with us in this ceremony. Through municipal councillors,
representatives of political parties and all stakeholders present here, we
constitute a very formidable force for transformation.
I recall that I raised this issue of transformation, de-racialisation of the
industry if you like, during the previous Abattoir Hygiene Rating Scheme Awards
ceremony in 2004. Regrettably, not much materially has been achieved in this
regard.
I again wish to make a call for transformation in this industry. I make this
call fully aware that, in some respect, no transformation process is easy. But,
on the other hand, none is too difficult.
Prior to the beginning of negotiations, negotiations that gave birth to the
democratic South Africa. People thought that we could not possibly deliver such
a smooth transformation from a country doomed to a certainty of awful and
bloody conflicts, with diminishing prospects of prosperity to what has been
called a miracle.
When pondering the way-forward in relation to this challenge, we have to
bear in mind that we have in our country objective conditions that are very
conducive to the imperative of transformation. We have a favourable
constitution, we also have favourable government policies and support tools.
Very importantly, I believe that we all have the indomitable determination to
further contribute towards making our country more prosperous, economically
non-racial and non-sexist and genuinely democratic in all respects.
The subjective fear of losing some competitive advantage and a fear of some
reduction in the profit margins, when the cake is equally shared, can certainly
not outweigh the overwhelming positives that actually will guarantee us all a
fair share. An initiative by present entrepreneurs will certainly constitute a
bold move, a step that will further propel us to the brighter future that we
are all striving to build.
Together, we need to be bold and seize the initiate. The Broad-Based Black
Economic Empowerment guidelines for the agricultural sector, must serve to
guide our own initiative, rather than compel us to move forward.
In conclusion, I wish to congratulate, once again, the winners in the 2007
Abattoir Hygiene Rating Scheme. I also wish to call on those still outside this
scheme, to join us on this noble cause of promoting the good health of our
communities.
I wish to also thank the organisers of this function.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, Gauteng
Provincial Government
15 November 2007
