M Nkoana-Mashabane: Mopani Growth and Development Summit

1 March 2007

Programme Director
Executive Mayor, Humphrey Mokgobi
Honourable Mayors from Mozambique
Honourable Mayors and speakers
Councillors and officials of our government
Traditional Leaders
Representatives from the Business Community
Friends from the media fraternity
Non Governmental Organisations
Distinguished guests
Comrades and friends
Ladies and gentlemen

The key challenge facing our country and our province in this Second Decade
of Freedom is the intensification of the struggle to fight against poverty and
underdevelopment. The President of the ANC Thabo Mbeki on the occasion of the
95th anniversary of the ANC said "the key economic challenge that faced the
country in 2004 and the key concerns of the democratic movement included the
rate of investment, the rate of economic growth and the rate of job creation".
He further said that "we received a clear mandate to lead the country to lift
our economy to higher growth trajectory and position it more effectively to
create work and push back the frontiers of poverty. In 2007 we must work even
harder together, further to implement this mandate".

This summit takes place within the context of these pronouncement made by
our President and we need to accelerate the process of change with a view to
fight poverty and reduce the levels of unemployment. We need to respond to
these challenges effectively to place economic growth and development at heart
of empowering the masses to take control of their own lives and ensuring that
they have the means and opportunity to enjoy the freedoms for which they have
fought for a long time.

The National Growth and and Development Summit has acknowledged the role
that municipalities can play in their areas of jurisdiction to further the
objectives of the acceleration of growth in the economy to tackle high levels
of poverty, and reducing unemployment and promoting social inclusion.
Collaboration and partnership between various role players is seen as the basis
for building common vision for promoting growth, job creation and people
centred development.

The strategic objectives of the summit are to focus on building blocks of
regional competitiveness and strengthen partnerships to enhance economic growth
and development at a local level. The summit has to identify economic
potentials and which sectors of the economy must be promoted to ensure
investment in each sector. We need to ensure that social and economic
infrastructure programme supports local investments including provision of
basic services to our people. All of these must be done within the context of
promoting nation building and robust local economies that is geared towards
addressing the challenges of unemployment and poverty.

The role of the provincial government is to assist municipalities in terms
of technical capacity, funding and monitoring planning and implementation of
projects that seeks to advance the objects of the Provincial Growth and
Development Strategy. It is against this backdrop that the role of the
Department of Local Government and Housing is further located and clarified
with the broad framework of provincial role players. We have both legislative
and constitutional mandates to support and assist municipalities with regard to
developments in their areas of jurisdiction and provision of basic services to
our communities.

Programme Director, Since 2002 the department has embarked on a process of
developing a Provincial LED strategy which is guided by the provisions of the
constitution especially section 153, the white paper on Local government,
National Spatial Development Framework 2003, National Framework on Local
Economic Development(LED), Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South
Africa (AsgiSA). Our provincial LED Unit will co-ordinate and provide
information about the trends in the local, provincial, national and
international economy and ensure that LED initiatives are able to compete and
integrate at these levels.

The Unit will further generate a better understanding of the in formal
economy as the basis for greater linkages with formal LED initiatives. The
Department of Economic Development Environment and Tourism will monitor the
implementation and impact of the PGDS Industrial Cluster. We will support the
roll-out of national programmes with the potential to lay a foundation for
Local Economic Development at the local level and valuable state assets to be
brought into the mainstream economy through transfers and pro-poor public
private partnerships. As part of our monitoring mandate we will oversee the
capacity building and consultation exercises that contribute to the improved
consistency of Integrated Development Plan (IDPs) and enhanced quality and
follow through on the LED reference in IDPs

Programme Director, as we conclude this summit, we need further to clarify
our roles as both policy makers and policy implementers to avoid confusion and
duplication of roles. The ANC in Limpopo in its lekgotla emphasised the need to
clarify the roles of our elected officials especially who serve the movement as
fulltime deployees in the municipalities. We need to further elaborate on the
creating a conducive environment for prosperity by co-operation, efficiency and
commitment to our vision of creating a better life for all. This will be
achieved through frank and open interaction with our communities and
involvement of the private sector which is key to economic growth.

Programme Director, the 2006 March election victory mandated us to make
local government to work better to improve their lives for the better. We
therefore have an obligation to honour and implement the contract we entered
with our people to better their lives. We call upon all stakeholders that are
in pursuit of economic growth, a fight against poverty and underdevelopment to
join hands with government to create a better world for all in realisation of
the 2014 goals of reducing unemployment to half and eradication of poverty. It
is my firm believe that all of us, united in action to advance the ideals of
the Freedom Charter will succeed.

I thank you.

Issued by: Local Government and Housing, Limpopo Provincial Government
1 March 2007
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government, (http://www.limpopo-dlgh.gov.za)