H Yawa: Provincial Vuna Awards ceremony

8 November 2007

Programme Director
Acting Premier, Mme Maureen Modiselle
Members of the North West Executive Council
Chairperson of the North West House of Traditional Leaders
Kgosi ME Mabe
Queen Mother, Mme Semane Molotlegi
Kgosi of the Bafokeng Nation, Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi
Traditional leaders
Executive Mayor and Mayors
Distinguished Councillors
Members of Ward Committees
Our partners from Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), National
Productivity Institute (NPI), South African Local Government Association
(SALGA)
Managers and officials from all spheres of government
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

It is a pleasure and a privilege for me to be here with you tonight, as we
celebrate the Vuna Awards presented to the best performing municipalities in
our province. It is also critical that these awards coincide with the week in
which our country commemorated the 40th anniversary since the death of Chief
Albert Mvumbi Luthuli, that great hero and unifier of our people, the people's
chief, a fearless freedom fighter as well as a dedicated, tireless and humble
servant of the South African people.

As we celebrate the Vuna Awards we must ask ourselves whether as councillors
we are honouring the life and memory of Chief Luthuli in a way that properly
befits his stature, in service to our people. Do we exhibit the same dedication
and commitment that Chief Luthuli projected during his lifetime?

The life and leadership of Chief Albert Luthuli teaches us a number of
important lessons as councillors, public representatives as well as civil
servants today. It is a lesson in sacrifice, dedication and commitment! It
teaches us that people went through many hardships and difficult times for
being part of the struggle and at times had to pay a supreme sacrifice for
that.

When Chief Luthuli assumed the leadership of the African National Congress
(ANC) he did so at a great personal cost, he could have chosen the comfort of
being a government paid Chief and thus sell-out the cause of struggle, but he
chose to be a true Chief of the people. He made a choice of being an ANC leader
rather than to serve as a chief who would have participated in the oppression
of his own people. How many of us today, do actually put the lives of the
people before our own personal interests and comforts?

In his statement to reject the offer that the apartheid regime had made him
he said: "I have been dismissed from the Chieftainship of the Abase-Makholweni
Tribe in Groutville. I was democratically elected to this position in 1935 by
the people of Groutville Mission. In so far as gaining citizenship rights and
opportunities for the unfettered development of the African people, who will
deny that thirty years of my life has been spent knocking in vain, patiently,
moderately and modestly at a closed and barred door?" (www.anc.org.za). Can we
say the same about our commitment to serving our people and delivering them
from the shackles of unemployment and poverty today?

There is a tendency today to forget these important lessons of our history
and to take things for granted and think that the ruling party is a party of
power, privilege and personal aggrandisement! Some amongst us think that being
in leadership of the ruling party is for personal gain and not for the benefit
upliftment of the lives of poor and ordinary people. The best way to honour and
cherish the memory of Chief Luthuli would be to follow in his footsteps and
learn from his actions. This is a challenge that faces our councillors today.
We need councillors who are dedicated to the upliftment of our people, who care
about their basic needs and well-being.

If we can deliver what our people expect from us, we would have gone a long
way in preserving and honouring the memory of Chief Luthuli. It is with this in
mind that we are tonight, honouring the best performing municipalities.
Councillors and all South Africans must take a leaf from the leadership and
life of Chief Luthuli. Chief Luthuli dedicated his entire adult life to
achieving the goal of liberation and paid a supreme sacrifice for his
convictions. Councillors today must follow in his footsteps by committing
themselves to meeting the challenges that face our people, especially in
relation to speeding up the delivery of basic services to the people. We cannot
rest until people have the basic necessities in the form of shelter, water,
electricity and sanitation.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Tonight is an important occasion in the life of local governance in our
province, as it affords us with an opportunity to do a critical analysis of
what is it that we have done and achieved over the past financial year, how we
have achieved that in terms of systems and structures that we put in place and
also look at the challenges and shortcomings that still face us as
municipalities within the province.

Among some of the systems that we put in place was the implementation of the
Community Development Workers (CDWs) of which their vision was articulated by
the President Thabo Mbeki when he opened Parliament on 14 February 2003, when
he said:

"The government will create a public service echelon of multi-skilled
community development workers who will maintain direct contact with the people
where these masses live. We are determined to ensure that government goes to
the people so that we sharply improve the quality of the outcomes of public
expenditures intended to raise the standard of living of our people.

"It is wrong that government should oblige the people to come to the
government even in circumstances in which the people do not know what services
the government offers and have no means to pay for the transport to reach
government offices."

The President further stated that: "among other things, these workers will
help to increase the effectiveness of our system of local government,
strengthening its awareness of and capacity to respond to the needs of the
people at the local level." (State of the Nation Address, President Thabo
Mbeki, March 2003).

Part of the criteria for getting these awards is that municipalities must
have implemented CDWs, so that the people can access opportunities. When we
celebrate the Vuna Awards here tonight, we are not only celebrating and
recognising the good work that our municipalities are doing in bettering the
lives of our communities, but we also want to encourage them to do even better
and at a faster pace.

Where there are blockages we must admit them so that we can confront them
with vigour, guided by what Amilcar Cabral that revolutionary intellectual from
Guinea-Bissau who taught us a cardinal rule that we should: "Hide nothing from
the masses of our people. Tell no lies! Expose lies whenever they are told.
Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories!" (Richard
Handyside, ed., Revolution in Guinea: Selected Texts by Amilcar Cabral, 1969, p
86)

And when we present these awards we are inspired by these words of wisdom
from Amilcar Cabral, we must in all honesty award the Vuna Awards to all those
municipalities who have done an honest job in the execution of their duties and
responsibilities as mandated by the constitution. One of the critical
assessment points of receiving the Vuna Awards is that a municipality must have
clear plans and strategies on how they are going to boost their local
economies. For this to take place in a strategic manner there is a critical
need to develop Local Economic Development Plans (LEDs), as well as the
Integrated Development Plans (IDPs). Municipalities also need to show that they
understand our department's Strategic Five Year Plan in action.

Another critical point is that of ensuring that the communities of various
localities participate in shaping policies that municipalities implement. A
strong element of public participation is therefore a necessary yardstick when
deciding those who will be recipients. The holding of Izimbizo and the
existence of democratically elected and representative Ward Committees that
meet regularly is an important criterion which boosts opportunities for any
municipality to win.

The Vuna Awards represent and recognise what has been done by the
councillors in the financial year, as they were engaged in efforts to bring
about a better life for local communities of the North West province. We must
only recognise those municipalities who have excelled in their work.

Programme director

When the Vuna Awards were introduced some four years ago, they were intended
to reward and recognise municipalities for the excellent way in which they have
been able to discharge their constitutional mandate to their local communities.
It is therefore important to mention that all the short listed municipalities
had to go through a gruelling assessment and I therefore want to assure you
that whoever walks away with the prize of the best performing municipality was
elected on merit. They must have performed exceptionally well in the following
areas:

* service delivery and infrastructure development
* local economic development
* municipal transformation and institutional development
* financial management and viability, as well
* good governance.

It is said that whenever W E B du Bois that African-American intellectual
giant, who stood head and shoulders above his peers, was asked to say a prayer
before every meal he used to say: "Please God give us the strength to continue
to do the work which cries out to be done." We are reminded of the significance
of his words tonight, as we celebrate honour and recognise the work that our
councillors are doing in all their various municipalities across the province.
We hope that in their daily work they are indeed driven by this same spirit and
ethos of service to the people.

The words of WEB du Bois should be what drive each and every councillor when
it executes its constitutional mandate. Each councillor must know that there is
a lot of work that cries out to be done and should be committed to doing it in
the best possible manner. It is said that all labour that uplifts humanity has
dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking
excellence.
We have therefore congregated here to recognise labour of municipalities that
have put relentless efforts in improving the lives of their local communities
in the province.

Programme director

We are aware that our municipalities are grappling with a number of
challenges, including a culture of non-payment by our communities, lack of
proper debt recovery and credit control systems as well as high turn-over of
key personnel.
Despite all these challenges, they make extraordinary efforts to respond to the
needs of the people they serve. I want to applaud them for that.

Just last week, we had in the province, the Governor of Kronoberg, sharing
with us how they in Sweden, accommodate the different spheres of government on
service delivery and governance. It is through partnerships like this, that we
change the face of local government.

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the winners of tonight's awards
and last but not least, those municipalities that submitted their nominations.
To those that did not make it to the finals, you did your best. Your hard work
is much appreciated.

My profound thanks to the Vuna Awards Steering Committee and all those who
worked hard to make tonight's occasion a success. Indeed, if municipalities
continue to work as hard as the ones that have won prizes, they will in fact
have contributed in honouring the memory of Chief Albert Luthuli in the best
possible manner.

Ke a leboga. I thank you!

Issued by: North West Provincial Government
8 November 2007