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Introduction

From 13 to 23 October 2003, the citizens of the North West province and their elected government will be engaged in an intensive Imbizo programme.

Background

Imbizo is a style of interactive governance to mobilise the people to become their own liberators in the unfolding process of social transformation. It aims to promote unmediated communication and dialogue with people on government's programme of action.

Imbizo enables ordinary people to raise concerns and views around the pace and direction of service delivery and social change. Through the input of our people, it seeks to shape the strategic focus and direction that we are taking as a country. It also ensures that the nation understands the rationale behind some of the key policy positions of government.

Over the last few years, Imbizo has proved to be a dynamic way in which our government could sustain ongoing dialogue with the people about efforts of building a better society.

Through the Imbizo programme, government seeks to debunk the myth of a messianic government that delivers to a passive citizenry. It makes a clarion call to ordinary people to become their own liberators and to take the initiative of bringing a better life to themselves and their fellow citizens.

Imbizo is not a public relations exercise. It is a practical way of advancing the objective of making ours a truly participatory democracy.

The focus of this year's Imbizo

Under the theme: "Building a people's contract for growth and development", this year's Imbizo programme will be more focused, seeking to communicate economic opportunities that have been made available to our people by our new democracy. It will also seek to communicate the implementation of the recent Growth and Development Summit held in June this year.

Democracy and freedom have brought new opportunities for the historically marginalized people. The critical challenge is to ensure that we expand access to these opportunities.

Government recognises that central to the development challenges facing our people is access to information. Our people need information that will empower them to take control of their own lives.

The agreements of the recent Growth and Development Summit included commitments on creating an environment conducive for economic growth and skills development by government and its social partners. The challenge is to ensure that as many people as possible are able to access the massive economic opportunities as part of the implementation of the Growth and Development Agreements.

For its part, government has identified the National Imbizo Focus Week as one of the communication vehicles through which these commitments can be realised. We have taken a conscious decision to use the coming Imbizo week to inform our people about the vast socio-economic opportunities that they can access.

The provincial government will use the Imbizo as a forum to give profile to the opportunities availed to them by the new government - Ntsika, Khula, Umsomvobu, micro credit, to name just a few.

Throughout the Imbizo period, communities will be exposed to initiatives around the Public Investment Initiatives, Expanded Public Works Programme, Local Procurement, small enterprise promotion, support for co-operatives, access to basic services, broad-based black economic empowerment, employment equity, skills development programmes, local economic development initiatives as well as other empowerment opportunities.

Programme

All campaigns and programmes that coincide with the National Imbizo Focus Week will be integrated into the National Imbizo Focus Week. These are the Public Service Week, Social Development Month and the Food Security Month. All activities that fall within the ambit of the Focus Week will constitute part of the National Imbizo Focus Week.

The following programme has been adopted by the Provincial Executive Council:

13 October 2003 - Jericho Village (Bojanala District)
14 October 2003 - Boitekong (Bojanala District)
16 October 2003 - Heuningvlei (Bophirima District)
18 October 2003 - Letsopa (Central District)
21 October 2003 - Maruping (Kgalagadi District)
23 October 2003 - Khuma (Southern District)

In all these areas, the Premier and Members of his Executive Council will be exposed to the socio-economic challenges facing our communities as well as the achievements of individuals and communities in addressing their needs. The Executive Council will visit projects where communities display initiatives with regards to self-employment and co-operatives - projects that give practical expression to the spirit of v'ukuzenzele, letsema and public-private partnership. (The profiles of the projects are enclosed in your media packs.)

This year's Imbizo programme will thus take the form of stop-over visits to identified projects as well as activities geared towards mobilizing our people for the social grants registration, identity document campaign and voter registration. We believe that this is critical to the consolidation of our democracy and ensuring expanded access to government services and economic opportunities.

Conclusion

Imbizo as a style of interactive governance has really captured the imagination of our people. We are confident that this year's Imbizo programme will build on the success of our previous Imbizos, and help strengthen the partnership of government with civil society in pushing back the frontiers of poverty, thus giving practical expression to the notion of building a people's contract for a better life.

We hope that in the coming week, members of the media will join government in a partnership that seeks to ensure that all our people access vital information that will lead to their economic empowerment. Let us build a people's contract to turn the tide against poverty, unemployment and deprivation.

I thank you

For further information: Cornelius Tanana Monama, (018) 387-3456, 082 578 4063 or Tshepiso Letselela, (018) 387-3020, 083 578 1876

Issued by: North West Provincial Government

9 October 2003