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Speaker
Deputy Speaker
Members of the Provincial Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature
Amakhosi present
Mayors and councillors of local government
Director-General and heads of various departments
Excellencies, members of the diplomatic corps
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen
People of KwaZulu-Natal

In the life of every society there comes a time when the door opens and lets in the future. That moment has arrived in KwaZulu-Natal.

Since 1948 it has never happened that the majority party in Natal, KwaZulu or KwaZulu-Natal has been the same as the majority party at national level. It is therefore for the first time that we have this synergy in government. Generation-wise, it was not without significance that our Royal guest, His Majesty the King, the Speaker and the Premier, were all born in 1948.

I am humbled to be the one who has the privilege to convey my congratulations to all honourable members on their election to serve as public representatives in this third democratic legislature of KwaZulu-Natal.

This issue-oriented election and the generally peaceful and professional manner in which it was conducted attest to the maturity of our democratic order. Elections do not only deal with what has to be done but who are the best men and women to be entrusted with the responsibility to lead government.

On this occasion we salute the men and women of our province who yet again demonstrated their maturity and purposefulness by going out in their millions to vote and vote peacefully. We salute the IEC and its thousands of workers. We salute the members of SAPS, of the SANDF and of the intelligence community for ensuring that our people expressed their will freely and without hindrance.

We express our gratitude to the religious community of all faiths who notwithstanding our weaknesses steadfastly prayed for us, for the province and for the country. It is our intention to yet again ask the religious leaders to hold an interfaith thanksgiving prayer soon. Let it be far from us to ask and be given, and, when we are to say thank you, we are found wanting.

Building a better provincial government

We now have a non-racial, multi-party executive council, which is fully functional. That cabinet has begun to meet, to deal with not only the business of this province, but to chart a strategy for the executive's term of office. We will work not only as a team, but in clusters to ensure that we govern in an integrated way.

As our work evolves I will keep both the legislature briefed and commit myself to regular media briefings and media conferences on the work of this province. We will work throughout the province and will represent all in the work that we do.

The institutional framework for governance in our province is not yet complete. Most glaring is that there is no legislative recognition of the role, status and powers of our Monarch. My government is committed to ensuring that we finalise the role and status of our Monarch by the end of November. This will be the first time since 1879 that His Majesty will be formally recognised, with defined powers and roles, by an institution of government in our province.

This legislature had already resolved to set up a liaison mechanism between the government of KwaZulu-Natal and His Majesty. Satisfactory progress has been made which will make it possible for me to finalise liaison mechanisms before the end of June.

There is now a national framework legislation in place defining the powers and functions of traditional leaders. I am committed to ensuring that we have our own province-specific legislation in place by the end of November 2004.

In order to ensure that we deal with some unfinished business, I will be commissioning a team of professionals to finalise a draft constitution to be submitted to the legislature for debate and adoption in order to be ready for certification by the Constitutional Court by the end of November 2004.

A protocol manual providing for the order of precedence in our historically complex province is in the process of finalisation.

A team of heraldry experts has been charged with the task of finalizing our coat-of-arms for approval by the Executive Council and legislature.

A distinctive KwaZulu-Natal banner will also be processed and approved by the legislature.

Desk to work with the Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the rights of cultural, religious and linguistic Communities (Section 185 of the Constitution)

There is a need for a desk to work with the Section 185 commission, established earlier this year, whereby the needs of cultural, religious and linguistic communities in our Province may be promoted and protected. By the end of July we will have taken steps to ensure that such a desk is in place.

In line with Section 6 of the Constitution, which allows all languages to be used and developed, we need to address the issue of disappearing languages.

According to the Language Services of the Department of Education, only 12% of the Indian community are fluent in either Tamil, Hindi, Gujerathi, Telegu or Urdu.

This problem is not unique. It is a problem also affecting the whole of Africa. In his book entitled "Capitalist nigger", Chika Onyeani states the following: "In the next twenty years, most of the African languages will be extinct. Swahili, Igbo, Hausa-Fulani, Fula, Akan, Yoruba, and the other minor languages will give way to the onslaught of the English language. The annihilation of the African languages can be traced directly to the stupid notion on the part of older Africans who had come in contact with the British and French that it was more of an honour for them to speak English or French with their accent, than to learn these two languages as a secondary language as other cultures have done. Africans delight in talking about how their children can speak with either French or English accents with no trace of the heavy African accent. Most of us cannot converse with our children in our own languages because we have been taught to avoid our own languages.

One of the first languages to become extinct is the Igbo language, spoken by more than 40 million people in Nigeria. The Igbo are a group, which has become an embodiment of a race without culture, history or language. This race embraced English so 'wholeheartedly' that brothers, sisters, children, parents, friends, relations, born from the same backward village cannot even hold discussions in the Igbo language without the use of the English language. They are the first major group in Africa who have totally abandoned any semblance of having a culture or language, having abandoned the African culture to the English culture in a vain attempt to ape the English way of life."

This desk is of course not going to be looking at cultural, religious and linguistic communities of the world. It would be looking at the problem as it affects KwaZulu-Natal communities. I will off course be the happiest person if in fact this problem is non-existent. However, that would be contrary to what was coming out during the "listening to the people campaign".

Office of the Youth Commission

In terms of the Youth Commission I am concerned that the needs and concerns of our young people are being served by only 2 out of 6 commissioners, with no Chairperson. I will be taking urgent steps to ensure that by the end of June the commission is enhanced, in place and will be charting a clear programme to build the youth of our province. Many institutions are available for our youth to take advantage of, from learnerships to the Umsombomvu Fund, and we must ensure that we don't lag behind.

The youth should henceforth play a more pivotal role in the creation of a peaceful, non-racial and productive province. In terms of peace, they should be in the forefront in the process of reconciliation between African-African, African-Indian, African-White and African-Coloured.

Office on the Status of Women in KwaZulu-Natal

The South African Government has adopted a National Framework on the empowerment of women in South Africa. This document is seen as the guideline within which all government departments must operate and provides a coordination structure for addressing gender equality issues within the structure and functions of government departments.

Similarly the participation of women in construction has been actively encouraged through a number of programmes, with a target of having 10% of Provincial budgets allocated to projects where women are the developers or contractors.

In KwaZulu- Natal the Office on the status of Women office will now be headed by a Director. It was previously headed by a deputy Director and was vacant. There should also be gender units in all Departments and in all local governments.

Office for the Disabled

Similarly I will be ensuring that an office dealing with the disabled is effectively staffed in order to take into account the specific needs of a sizeable proportion of our people. These needs include ensuring government is accessible to all.

Facilitating the establishment of a Sports Council

The wonderful news that we will host the 2010 World Cup comes at an opportune moment for we must find ways to ensure we use sports to build our people, physically and emotionally. I will be facilitating the establishment of a council representative of all sporting codes which will work closely to ensure that our young people particularly and all of us in general become more active in sporting activities.

I am mindful of the enormous responsibilities we have in preparing for the 2010 World Cup, but I want us to begin now to prepare the youth, because the 11-16 year-olds who will ensure we have a realistic chance of winning that world cup as the host nation. The sports-development programme must begin now utilizing our veteran sports persons to coach our youth.

There must be a clear programme to build sports infrastructure throughout the province, particularly in rural areas. We must ensure these facilities are both built and existing infrastructure are properly utilized through Public-Private partnerships. Our institutions of higher learning could form the focal points for programmes of sports excellence. There should be an urgent programme by our Universities and Technikons to mentor sporting athletes from nearby townships to attended capacity-building programmes to bring them to the level of professional and national sportspersons. The existence of floodlights and transport should break any barriers to the realization of this objective.

For those who might be unaware of the urgency of the task at hand let me remind this house that the South African games will be hosted by KwaZulu - Natal next year.

Effective government and Administration

Our legislature has met and put its own institutional framework in place. I have no doubt that we will work closely together to fulfil our executive and legislative mandate.

Much work remains to be done in creating a better administrative platform for executing the legislative and executive mandate. We cannot say with confidence that we are administering our programmes and policies economically, efficiently and effectively and I am certain much remains to be done to improve on our administrative performance.

In line with our election commitment, and the need for a single government that is not fragmented and disparate, Pietermaritzburg is both the legislative and executive capital of our province. We are now able to consolidate an administration that has consumed so much in the way of government resources through the duplication of offices and wastage of time travelling between centres.

The cost saving that will be achieved through the consolidation of the administration; will be used to strengthen other areas of service delivery. While the Head Office is Pietermaritzburg, regional and satellite offices can be established which will act as extensions that can bring government closer to the people it serves.

Presently, our province owns a Lear Jet; Jet Stream, Beechcraft and a Bell Helicopter. I will be reviewing the air transport service and rationalise it in the interests of the Province.

There is no place for a public service that is obsequious, insolent or absent. For us to achieve our governance and development goals, we need a corps of competent and dedicated public servants who deliver quality services expeditiously.

The Citizen's Charter adopted in the United Kingdom in 1991 has shown us a way to cross the divide between government and the citizen. The Citizen's Charter spells out clearly what people can expect from government, the norms and standards according to which these services should be rendered and the rights and obligations of citizens in regard to these services. More critically, such a Charter creates the basis for government to, in consultation with the people, continually improve services in line with the expectations and needs of the community.

Most of the principles of the Citizen's Charter, such as accountability, transparency and citizen empowerment are incorporated into our Batho Pele programme.

Using this international best practice and our Batho Pele as a basis, the province must, within three months, develop a Provincial Citizen's Charter, which is the provincial government's contract of delivery to the people.

Enhancing cooperative governance

Local government is undoubtedly the corner stone of development. If there is no stability at this level of governance, there can be no real transformation nor can we talk of tangible service delivery. All people are local. With wall-to-wall municipalities that came into effect from 5 December 2000, there is not a single place in this country and this province that is not under a municipality. Therefore, the real test for this government in the next five years is to build the capacity of local government thus ensuring that every citizen=s life is improved, thus ensuring a better life for every citizen.

The Freedom Charter, the vision articulated by the people of South Africa in 1955 in Kliptown stated that the people shall govern. Community participation as articulated in the white Paper of Local Government of 1998 confirms this vision. This vision has to translate to the betterment of the people=s lives. Local government will be a key performance indicator for this government.

It is said that life is a learning and exciting journey of discovery and mistakes. However, if we do not learn from our mistakes, it becomes a tragedy as unlearned mistakes impact negatively on our forward plan. Mistakes are not necessarily failure. They can be FAIL, which is an acronym for First Action In Learning.

We have seen how the relationship between councillors and officials has resulted in a lot of money being wasted instead of being channelled in service provision. Newspaper headline after headline carry stories of conflicts between councillors and senior officials, which result in thousands of rands being paid out in settlement packages. If municipalities fail the province fails. In terms of Chapter 6 Section 139 of the Constitution it is the duty of the provincial government to supervise local government.

We are also obliged to build the capacity of municipalities. Sadly, this important function has not been adequately carried out.

As the provincial executive, we need to look at each case and ensure that procedures are followed and that the main agenda of local government of providing basic services is adhered to.

Whatever, solutions we may apply need not compromise service delivery. My government therefore undertakes to ensure that the local government mandate is fulfilled and waste of scarce resources is addressed as a matter of urgency.

Chapter 7 Section 153 spells out the developmental duties of municipalities: "A municipality must structure and manage its administration, budgeting and planning processes to give priority to the basic needs of the community, to promote the social and economic development of the community; and participate in national and provincial development programmes.

Corporate governance therefore is not a choice but a must if we are to fulfil our promise to the more than 9 million people of this province. We need to establish forums that will ensure that the provincial government engage and meet regularly with local government so as to ensure that as a provincial government we take into account the municipal integrated development plans in our budgeting and business planning processes. Fragmented and unaligned planning must be the thing of the past. We need to know what the other hand is doing and complement each other rather than competing with each other.

The peace and stability in this province will be strengthened by the active role of municipalities. The experiences of Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leon, DRC, Israel and many other countries tell us that were there is war, local governance disappears. Where there is a strong local government structure, democracy is stronger and peace and stability are the norms.

Our constitution is founded upon advancing human rights and ensuring there is a system of cooperative governance in our country. While at a national level there are clear institutions of intergovernmental cooperation, at a provincial level this is not the case. I will take urgent steps to ensure that by the end of July the first Premier's Coordinating Forum will be held, consisting of the provincial executive and Mayors.

At the same time, I will expect the executive to consult closely with and work in a collective way with local governments in our province.

Growing the economy

It is of real concern that we remain one of a minority of provinces that does not as yet have a Provincial Growth and Development Strategy, which should be used throughout the province as a framework for growth, and development. At the same time, we expect each local government to have an Integrated Development Plan, which is updated annually through a consultative process with the communities they serve.

By the end of October, we will release a Provincial Growth and Development Strategy which will not only draw lessons from the IDPs, but will ensure co-ordinated service delivery with the local government sphere and other service providers.

This government has a tremendous opportunity to reverse the poor economic growth rates of our province. In this regard, I will be writing to all organised business formations in the province asking them to mobilise the business sector to indicate the key deliverables they expect from us and which we will discuss with them to ensure we grow the economy together.

We will also engage other social partners, particularly labour to find common cause on growing the economy and creating jobs.

Black economic empowerment

One of the areas that we will pay particular attention to is a broad-based black economic empowerment programme.

I have engaged Professor Bonke Dumisa, a Professor of Business Management and Director of the School of Business Management from the University of KwaZulu-Natal as my special advisor. He will assume work on June 1 and join former MEC for Finance, Mr Peter Miller, who is already working in that capacity.

In addition, we will establish a Black Economic Advisory Forum to advise on implementation of Black Economic Empowerment. This is an urgent task.

This programme will also address the empowerment of women, people with disability and the youth.

Promoting effective, efficient and economic local government

The delivery programme of the country will depend on the effectiveness, efficiency and economy of local government. In order to address both the objects of local government as laid down in our constitution and also their developmental duties, municipalities must perform with some capacity their assigned powers and functions. It could be argued that municipalities, which are significantly and constantly under-performing, are not meeting their constitutional responsibilities. Our province has received a report from the Municipal Demarcation Board indicating that over 10 municipalities are weak in terms of performing their constitutional functions and we would need to urgently address what should be done in redressing this matter.

At the same time, we must urgently ensure that all local government operates effectively, efficiently and economically.

The major role that municipalities play in the provision of infrastructure deserves comment. Our Department of Local Government, Housing and Traditional Affairs, will be tasked to request from all municipalities information on their plans to meet the Millennium Development Goals with regard to water, electricity, housing and sanitation.

These goals must be extended to include our schools as priority areas because it is simply unacceptable that some of our children still do not have access to clean water and sanitary conditions at school.

The involvement of all role-players, including Umgeni and other Water Boards, Eskom, Telkom and the like is important in this process. Umgeni Water Board has begun this process and will feed their plans and programmes into a province-wide initiative.

Developing the people of our province

A report entitled a "Profile Analysis of the KwaZulu-Natal Province" was commissioned by the former Premier. This Report was finalised in April 2004. It makes for a frightening read. I have made this document available to each member of the legislature and to the public at large.

None of us should have any illusions about the massive and daunting task before us. For instance what comes out clearly from this Profile is that poverty is pronounced in the province. It is estimated in 2002 that some 5,084,162 people, constituting 53% of the total population of the province, received incomes below the poverty income level compared to 3,989,690 people in 1996. The incidence of poverty is highest in the rural areas where some 74% of the population live on incomes below the poverty income level.

What is more alarming for me are the backlogs in education which mean that not only this generation but the next generation, that will, for another 30 years to come, still be doomed unless we begin to do something drastic and do it now.

The Department of Education (2003) reports that:

• 53 % of schools have no telephone connection
  
• 56 % of all schools are accessible only by footpaths or poor gravel roads
  
• 60 % of schools have no power supply
  
• 34 % of schools have no water on site
  
• 51 % of schools use pit latrines and 333 schools have no toilets at all
  
• 77 % of schools have no library
  
• 85 % of schools have no laboratory
  
• 75 % of schools are without computers
  
• 34 % of schools have no principal offices
  
• the shortfall in classrooms is estimated at 14, 667
  
• 32 % of school buildings are in poor physical condition.

It is also imperative that we distinguish between the poverty of individuals and that of communities. As the people of the province, we must agree on what the critical indicators of poverty should be.

As government, our thrust will be towards addressing the poverty of communities. In this regard, we view poverty of a community as lack of water, energy and access. Without those three things a community is doomed to poverty. We should therefore strive to build sustainable communities in KwaZulu-Natal.

Given the fact that we are endowed with an abundance of natural resources, cultural heritage, agricultural potential, tourism, and hosting the two major sea ports in Africa, what then confounds me why we continue to be classified among the poorest provinces in our country.

It is clear therefore that on almost every development indicator contained in the profile report, we faired badly as a province. And at the heart of this is a simple fact: Our people are not being developed in terms of education and skills.

We cannot find excuses for this when we are closing down technical and other colleges and we don't use money, which is available in the various SETAs for learnerships. Why don't we ensure that the excellence of our own Universities and Institutes of Technology is spread throughout our province?

In this regard I am going to write to Professor William Makgoba, Professor Dan Ncayiyana, Dr Aaron Ndlovu, and Professor V Gumbi, heads of institutions of higher learning in our province, requesting them to come up with a programmes to address the high levels of illiteracy, innumeracy, and skills development, and research relevant to the development needs of the province.

In a province that is characterised by poverty, joblessness and de-stabilised households, we cannot under-estimate the importance of providing life skills to our people. I therefore wish to introduce the concept of community colleges.

These colleges will fall under the auspices of the Further Education and Training Framework, but will focus on the acquisition of life skills rather than training for qualifications.

Through tuition in areas such as literacy, basic farming, cooking, sewing, mechanics and building as well as basic business and household management skills, we will enable our people to take the first steps in fending for themselves and to take control of their destiny.

It is important that we measure and monitor all government performance. We now have a profile of the province that outlines the socio-economic challenges that are facing our people and the opportunities that exist in KwaZulu-Natal. We also have a poverty map that tells us where the poorest of the poor are in our province.

It is therefore imperative that all departments should set clear targets and indicators on how they will address the challenges outlined in the profile. This will not only enable the executive and the legislature to measure the performance of our government in alleviating and finally eradicating poverty but also our people who voted us into office.

Moral regeneration

I am often struck by the discord between our strong legacy of African Humanism and the fact that we still have too many people involved in criminal acts or benefiting from criminal activity. We must turn this around. In the coming months there must be an inter-faith meeting where we begin to chart the way forward to instil the values which have founded our liberation and which are enshrined in our constitution.

Crime, safety and security

According to Agostinho Zacarias in Security and the State in Southern Africa:

Security is a concept resulting from a complex web of interactions among individuals in different spheres of social life, such as the political, economic, social, military and environmental. This interaction is mediated by a number of structures, institutions, and interests. It is a concept that cannot be defined in the absence of human beings.

The essence of security, whether it concerns individuals, communities or states, is the assurance of human beings of their ability to predict and fulfil their aspirations without incurring the danger of physical damage or sacrificing their core values.

Thus, the predictability of peace in their relations with other individuals is fundamental. In fact, in predictability lies the basis of the distinction between the concept of security and peace, whether peace is conceived of, in classical terms, as the absence of war, the absence of structural violence, a process of conflict management, or even as justice, order and harmony. " Security reflects the assurance that peace and the fulfilment of aspirations will not be disturbed either by a natural or human phenomenon. People need this assurance in order to predict and plan their progress and the continuity of their "way of life, communities and states" need security also to guarantee their continuity and progress in their relations with others.

The lack of predictability of peace in relations among individuals, societies and states impinges upon diverse factors affection their stability.

It disrupts the basis of sociability and cooperation in the attainment of societies goals, it impedes states from maximising their potential benefit in their interactions and it one of the major detractors of domestic and foreign investment, in short, of good economic activity.

The lack of predictability of peace also encourages high military expenditures, which, in addition to being a drain of resources, may enhance tensions in relations.

The search for security is thus a fundamental component of relations between individuals, societies and states because it provides a major continuity, progress and the improvement of people's and the state's goals.

Mr Speaker, we are faced with the reality that KwaZulu-Natal is the most armed province in the country. This is so serious such that we cannot begin to talk about peace but the absence of war. This does not only pose a threat to the stability of our province but also impedes the ability of the citizens of our province to "predict and plan their way of life", as Zacarias aptly puts it.

In this context it is not enough to bury the hatchet. You can always remember where you buried the hatchet in a community that does not use the weapon of criticism but criticism by weapons.

In order to root out this problem, it is absolutely necessary that vigorous steps should be taken. Towards this, we will be calling on our provincial Department of Safety and Security to immediately work out a comprehensive plan, to be submitted to us in the next three months, to rid KwaZulu-Natal of the massive illegal weapons.

However, this does not take away the responsibility from the political parties, in particular the ANC and the IFP to play a role, not only in undoing the ravaging effects of violence and hostility, but also in ensuring that everlasting peace and stability prevail in our province. Equally, the law enforcing agencies should, while the talks continue, enforce the law against perpetrators of violence without fear or favour.

HIV/AIDS rollout

It is said that our Province has amongst the highest rates of people living with HIV or AIDS. It is also said that these are about 5 million people who are HIV positive in our country and of these, 500 000 have AIDS.

The comprehensive Plan for Management, Care and Treatment of HIV and AIDS was approved by National Cabinet in November last year. Due to the fact that there is still no cure for HIV and AIDS, the Comprehensive Plan emphasizes the centrality of prevention in response to HIV and AIDS, food security and nutrition, attending to poverty, care and support, and Human Rights.

On this issue, my government is committed to combating the epidemic through a comprehensive strategy focusing on prevention, care and support for HIV negative and positive people. The services provided by the Provincial Department of Health are voluntary counselling and testing, CD4 and viral load tests, nutritional support such as nutritional supplements and micronutrient tablets. This also includes the treatment of opportunistic infections and sexually transmitted infections and traditional and complementary medicines.

The roll out has begun and is continuing. Eight institutions have been accredited for the administration of anti-retrovirals to 200 patients on the Anti retroviral Therapy Programme. By early June, twelve more sites will have been added and by September, a total of thirty sites would be operational with 800 patients in treatment programmes. By March 2005, 40 ART sites would be running and a total of 20 000 will be on treatment. This will be more than any other Province, inclusive of the Western Cape. These centres are distributed across Districts in the Province and are a mixture of Urban and Rural, previously disadvantaged and previously advantaged and north and south of the Tugela. A further twelve are being prepared and will be submitted for consideration. There are 465 Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) sites in the Province, of which 43 are outside health institutions so as to enable people to have access to Voluntary Counselling and Testing sites without having to go to a hospital, community health centre or clinic. The importance of this is to make VCT a part of every day life.

Critical to the success of this programme is a strong communication and social mobilisation campaign that educate and inform the general public and potential service users. From this month, Khomanani service providers will begin to deliver information leaflets and posters on additional services being added to various interventions that have been underway over the past years. The Department will also embark on an extensive multi-media advertising campaign.

Advancing the African Renaissance

May I remind this House that on the 25th May 1963 the OAU was formed. The leaders who gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, were inspired by the commitment to attain a united approach on the part of the continent in pursuit of the total liberation of Africa and its socio-economic development.

It is by no coincidence that today, 25t May 2004 I deliver my first State of the Province Address. This is so because some of the challenges which gave rise to the formation of the (OAU), now the African Union (AU) are as real today as they have been.

The struggle to liberate our people from the colonial legacy of the past still goes on. The struggle to ensure that all citizens of this province enjoy their constitutional rights to equality and social justice persists. The struggle to ensure that there is socio-economic development throughout the province, from KwaMashu to uKhahlamba, from Port Edward to Umhlabuyalingana, continues.

We are a people of Africa and we must work closely with every initiative to build on NEPAD, the African Union and the Pan-African Parliament. It is a credit to the province that eThekwini has now been chosen as one of seven NEPAD cities. The Mayor and City Manager have arrived back from Lagos with a request that the State of Lagos develop close linkages with KwaZulu-Natal. We have much to share with them and the challenges they face in their city of some 17 million people. We will work to build NEPAD in every way we can.

Key infrastructure projects

The launch of the Extended Public Works initiative brings home to us the importance of building a world-class infrastructure to serve the economy well into the future.

In 1994 only 12 international airlines operated in South Africa. Today there are over 70. Discussions are nearing completion for an important international airline to fly directly to Durban before the end of the year.

Durban has also recently become the regional centre for all national airports. This means that Kimberly, Upington, Bloemfontein, George, Port Elizabeth and Pilanesberg all report to Durban.

In his State of the Nation address, President Mbeki had this say about the King Shaka international airport. "National Treasury is in the final stages of registering the King Shaka International Airport and freight terminal as the Public-Private Partnership. Construction will start after the agreement has been reached with the Airports Company over land usage in the ongoing negotiations".

The finalisation of the establishment of King Shaka Airport brings with it the issues of contracts, attendant rights, and obligations that need to be carefully managed.

Strong coordination and leadership will be given by the Office of the Premier together with the Departments' of Economic Development, Transport, both National and Provincial, the eThekwini Municipality and ACSA.

Tourism

When you visit countries that are proud of their history like the UK, India, China, US or Mozambique you are struck by the positive way they project themselves and their past.

Eco-cultural tourism is a major draw card for foreign and domestic tourism. KZN is one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the world, with minimum effort on our part.

Wherever you may be in the world everyone knows what you are talking about when you mention "Coca Cola" or "Zulus". But when you actually come to KZN you are struck by the lack of the thereness of the Zulu people in terms of their cultural and historical symbols. Even in their place names are not even spelt correctly. They speak of Tugela, Umbogintwini, Dingaanstad, Tongaat etc. Until three years ago we honoured Lord Chelmsford who was defeated at Isandlwana and relegated Ntshingwayo Ka Mahole to oblivion. The British are not to blame for that. It is us who have perpetrated an unbalanced history about ourselves.

Ghandi cut his political teeth in KwaZulu-Natal but there is very little to show for it in terms of symbols in the province.

Great will be the day where there is something to show that King Shaka made contact with the English in Durban KwaKhangela Amankengana in 1824. From there we would proceed to construct an Amphitheatre, a library and museum in KwaDukuza where Ilembe lies buried. These will house a collection of the history of the Zulu people that is scattered all over the country and all over the world.

From here we would proceed to KwaBulawayo, near the Ngoye Forest, where King Shaka built his palace. Already a blacktop road is under construction leading to this site. There are good prospects of private investment to reconstruct KwaBulawayo Palace as King Shaka built it.

Architecture students from erstwhile ML Sultan and Natal Technikons had a great time reconstructing the palace as it might have been.

From KwaBulawayo our cultural tourist would proceed with the journey to emaKhosini Valley, where most of our previous kings are resting, and cover the original Umgungundlovu, where King Dingane reigned. By now our tourist's interest will be heightened, and the tourist will veer off towards Nkandla Forest where the heroic King Cetshwayo lies buried.

Logic will then dictate that our guest proceeds to Isandlwana and Shiyane, the site of the epic battles. We can go on.

Contrary to the belief by some people, our previous kings, in particular Ilembe, lived not only in the north but also south of uThukela. For example, Ilembe had a royal kraal in KwaKhangela Amankengana, in the southern part of Durban. He also lived and is resting in KwaDukuza, south of uThukela.

Towards achieving these ideals, I invite the business community to join hands in ensuring that we not only pay a befitting tribute to our kings, but also stimulate eco-cultural tourism in our province.

Towards a caring province

Mr Speaker,

In conclusion, I wish to invite the people of this province, the religious communities, the education sector, civil society to celebrate the International Children's Day on June 1.

The main function will be held at Kings Park Soccer Stadium and will be hosted jointly by the Premier's Office and eThekwini Municipality.

We wish to acknowledge our appreciation to the sponsorship we have received towards the celebration from among others, Standard Bank and Ithala Bank.

We are taking a stand against violence. It is violence to abandon a child. It is violence to abuse children. It is violence to avoid paying child maintenance. It is violence to abandon a woman with child. It is violence to deny a child access to education.

The government of KwaZulu-Natal cares. Let us make KwaZulu-Natal fit for our children to grow up in. Let us create a caring province. Let us start with the child.

I thank you!

Issued by: Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
25 May 2004