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28 February 2005

His Majesty the King, Hlanga Lomhlabathi
Speaker;
Deputy Speaker;
Members of the Provincial Executive Council;
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature;
Mayors and Councilors of Local Government;
Amakhosi Present;
Heads of departments;
Excellencies, members of the Diplomatic Corps;
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen; and
People of KwaZulu-Natal

Introduction

Yesterday, the 27th of February 2005, one of the most outstanding architects of our freedom and the first Premier of the Eastern Cape, Tata Raymond Mhlaba, was laid to rest. As we speak he has just finished 24 hours in a temporary grave in Zwide.

If Oom Ray had held onto life for four more months, he would have celebrated 50 years of the Freedom Charter on the 26th of June. If someone had asked him any time this month what he was doing this time fifty years ago, he would have recalled with incredible clarity that he together with thousands of other volunteers were moving from location to location, village to village, sector to sector collecting unadulterated views of very ordinary people on what kind of South Africa they wished to replace the hated and abominable apartheid regime.

Those views were not faxed, e-mailed or sent through sms (short messages). They were collected door-to-door, rondavel to rondavel and hut to hut.

He would have explained that this massive task germinated out of a proposal by Professor Z.K Matthews two years earlier in 1953. He would have quickly added that Professor Z.K Matthews’s proposal became a national call not because it was made by a professor, not because ZK Matthews was a personal friend of Inkosi Albert Luthuli, erstwhile fellow staff member at Adams College and President-General of the African National Congress, and definitely not because the oppressed needed yet another document to submit to the apartheid rulers for their kind consideration.

By 1953, after decades of struggle, the oppressor and oppressed alike clearly understood what we were against.

We were against exclusion from the vote in all law making bodies in our country, whether national, provincial or local. We were against racism, we were against sexism; we were against inaccessible and inferior education. We were against slums and segregated residences; we were against dispossession and denial of access to land. We were against unjust laws meted out by racist judiciary. We were against a public service that was racial and hostile to the needs of our people. We were against our exclusion from the economy.

We were against the 1927 Native Administration Act and the subsequent Bantu Authorities Acts that sought to systematically turn the respected institution of traditional leadership that had in the past defended the interests of the people to be instruments of the hated Bantu Administration policies. We were against imprisonment for punishment instead of imprisonment as punishment.

We were against the adoption of a crime against humanity as an official policy. In other words we were against oppression of any kind.

While what we stood against was clear enough, what we stood for was subject to distortions, falsification and speculation.

On Tuesday 22 February, His Majesty asked me to convey on his behalf and of the people of KwaZulu-Natal our condolences to the Mhlaba Family. This we did then as we did yesterday.

This House will recall that when Raymond Mhlaba, Walter Sisulu and others were released at the end of 1989, after more than a quarter of a century of incarceration, almost the first thing they sought to do was to pay their respects to His Majesty the King, at eHlalankosi kwaNongoma. As all of us know, this was not to be. They only met almost ten years later when His Majesty was the guest of his counterpart, the Kabaka - the King of Buganda, and Mr Mhlaba was then the South African High Commissioner in Uganda.

We said that Mr Mhlaba is buried in a temporary grave. That declaration of the temporality of his resting place reminds us of a similar declaration in March 1986 at the funeral of Baba Moses Mabhida. Both President Oliver Reginald Tambo and President Samora Machel declared that his final resting place would be in South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal.

It is a declaration we are committed to honour.

They are no longer here to see the realisation of their vision. But they can rest in the peaceful knowledge that we will not betray their vision, their teachings or their legacy. It is them who taught us that progress is a nice word. But change is a motive force, and that change has its enemies. There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

The Freedom Charter is important today as it was important to the youth of Raymond Mhlaba’s days. It spoke to the oppressed themselves: why they needed to draw on their own united strength; and to achieve that unity, why they needed a common programme of struggle even if they belonged to different political parties, different languages and different races. It spelled out why non-racialism was not only desirable but was actually possible.

Also in the audience with us today are stalwarts who constitute that diminishing walking treasures of those who were part of the Congress of the People that adopted the Freedom Charter in June in 1955. They are Mrs Linah Mabhida, the widow of Baba Moses Mabhida, Dr Mahomed Motala, former Ambassador to Morocco, Mr Anton Xaba and Miss Ruth Lundie.

We in KwaZulu-Natal salute you. We applaud your tenacity and your staying power. We take this opportunity to thank you for the selfless and unwavering contribution to our emancipation and to the restoration of the dignity of all South Africans, black and white. We also thank you for being with us today.

Towards Normalisation of KwaZulu-Natal

Since 1916 Ireland has been known for bitter conflicts between Catholics and Protestants. This was an active war characterised by bombings and shootings. When we thought of Ireland we thought of war. Even soccer was not soccer. You supported Celtics if you were Catholic and Rangers if you Protestant. Since 1998 there has been a complete transmogrification in Ireland. It is now a country known for hi-tech, a country known for warm-heartedness, a tourist Mecca. Even the little known U2 is part of the new Irish identity.

What happened?

Political parties, parliamentarians, business people, religious people and media all came to a point where they said that they needed to do things in a new way; that conflict did not help any side but could lead to the ruin of all.

Today there is a new Ireland that is not for Catholics or Protestants, but for all Irish people.

A new KwaZulu-Natal is emerging. The Sunday Tribune (January 16, 2005) has reported that KwaZulu-Natal is the best-kept secret. “House prices in Durban have for the past few years lagged behind both Cape Town’s and Johannesburg’s – but they are really flying, with an increase of almost 40% over the past two years.

“… Durban had for many years suffered from a “poor cousin image” because of the political instability in KwaZulu-Natal, lack of new development and limited international flights. But now with calm in the area, a number of developments in the waterfront and plans for a new airport north of Durban… the city is becoming more attractive”

We are moving in the right direction now. We want to create a Province free of violence, create the conditions for investment opportunity. We can work best if we create the partnerships required to bring about this stability.

Violence has been part of our past but it is no longer part of our present, and it certainly not going to be part of our future. The only way to abolish war is to make peace heroic. The Zulu language makes a distinction between ubuqhwaga (thuggery) and ubuqhawe (heroism). The heroes of peace are the 9.5 million people who have turned their backs on violence.

However, there are less than 1000 people who are still bent on violence. These are the people we should rid our province of. By and large these are people who make profit out of violence and misery.

Also the large credit for peace is attributable to the 16, 200 SAPS officers for their vigorous action in arresting the perpetrators of crime. We applaud them.

The National Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel announced last Wednesday a R4,4 billion additional allocation towards policing. This will help fighting crime and improving the salaries of the police personnel. This is a further demonstration of government’s commitment to fighting crime.

There are however, a few rotten apples within the police service.

Commission of Inquiry into alleged police inefficiency and ineffectiveness

On February 24th I appointed a Commission of Inquiry into alleged police inefficiency and ineffectiveness in KwaZulu-Natal.

Currently, 859 police officers in the Province are facing disciplinary actions of various kinds, including corruption and misconduct.

The police in KwaZulu-Natal face R500 million in litigation arising out of actions of some police personnel.

This should not detract us from the fact that the 859 police officers were arrested by the overwhelming majority of honest police officers.

Recently, when some of the Province’s MECs went to Nongoma to deliver services to the people they were prevented from carrying out their mandate by unruly elements. The police called the unrest a “peaceful protest” despite the danger posed to members of the community, members of the Legislature and the government officials.

There are numerous precedents to this event. Two are worth mentioning:

The first was at the Emabhanoyini near Jozini where the official function in which the Deputy President was in attendance was disrupted by thugs. It is alleged that the police stood and watched as the Deputy President and other leaders of government, both national and provincial, were forced to leave.

The second was the Presidential Imbizo at Msinga in January last year when a heavily armed mob tried to disrupt the function. Yet again there were no arrests or prosecution.

Last year weapons were discovered at the former legislative building at Ulundi. A senior Scorpion official commented that this was “just a tip of the iceberg.” From this it seems clear that the police were aware that these weapons were there.

Again these developments have necessitated that we take drastic action as a matter urgency, hence this Commission of Inquiry.

The Commission will, among other things, investigate police conduct, efficiency, effectiveness and service delivery following complaints received by the government over the past two years.

The following stations will be probed: Esikhawini, KwaDabeka, Ladysmith, Loop Street, Pietermartizburg, Mpumalanga, Nongoma, Phoenix, Stanger, Ulundi, Umbumbulu, Umlazi and any other station the commission may deem necessary.

The following legal experts will serve on the Commission of Inquiry:

Advocate Stix Mdladla (Chairperson)
Ms Salochini Pillay (member),
Mr ILan Lax (member)
Mrs Hannelien Meyer (Secretary)

The commission was supposed to begin its work in April, but since the killings of the Mayor and ‘Councillor of Imbabazane Municipality at Escourt, its work commences immediately.

Commission into political violence

Speaking at the debate on the State of the Nation Address in Cape Town, the IFP leader Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi called for the government to take an unequivocal public stance against all forms of political violence, especially in KwaZulu-Natal. According to the Mercury of 16 February 2005, he said “I urge the government unequivocally to take a public stance against all forms of political violence, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, by mounting a real campaign against this type of crime in the same way we have done in respect to other crimes, such as violence against women and children.” During the same debate Dr Buthelezi said that he had written to Deputy President Jacob Zuma sometime ago calling for a Presidential Commission of enquiry to determine why political crimes were not usually met with prosecution, trials and convictions. And it is for this reason that I have invoked my powers under the KwaZulu-Natal Commissions Act of 1999 to create a judicial commission of enquiry to:

* Investigate and report on political violence in the Province including the causes and perpetrators of violence;
* Make recommendations towards reconciliation, amnesty and prosecution which will;
* Bring closure towards KwaZulu-Natal’s history of politically motivated violence.

The Commission will be led by a retired judge. I am approaching the Minister of Justice to assist in the appointment of the retired judge. Other members will be a secretary and the leader of evidence.

The Commission meets before the end of March 2005. Political parties and interested individuals are welcome to make suggestions on the terms of reference. An opportunity to speak out will be given to everyone in KwaZulu-Natal, after which closure will be brought bear on the matter.

KwaZulu-Natal has a right to continue with the urgent task of consolidating of peace and of embarking on development programme without being held hostage to the past.

A Uniting and Forward Looking Provincial Government

When we constituted our provincial government on 5 May 2004 we made a plea to the cynical. We asked for a deliberate suspension of disbelief. We committed ourselves not to preside over a government based on grudges and hatred. We were acutely aware that if we open a quarrel with the past we would be in danger of losing our future.

Today we are still of that view. Our concern is with the future. Our country has changed us and our province is changing. All over KwaZulu-Natal women and men are emerging, women and men not bound by the traditions of the past, not blinded by old hates, prejudices and petty rivalries, women and men who can cast off old slogans, delusions and suspicions.

A new identity, a profound identity is emerging.

As we are gathered here today, I can say with pride that a new spirit of optimism and hope permeates the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. We have ceased to be a pariah province known only for violence and self-destruction. We have begun to make bold strides towards achieving our objective of building a unified, prosperous and peaceful province; a place we all can be proud to call home.

Last year, we established a non-racial, multi-party Executive Council made up of three political parties. I am happy to say that our broad-based government for KwaZulu-Natal continues to work collectively for the social upliftment of our Province and its people. Its very inclusivity provides the much desired political stability and direction.

In line with our election commitment, and the need for a single government that is not fragmented and disparate, we have consolidated our Provincial administration in Pietermaritzburg. The Executive and Legislative arms of government now exist within a short distance from each other.

I am in no doubt that this will encourage a closer working relationship that we require to fulfil our respective mandates.

We now have a Provincial Coat of Arms, which gives expression to our identity.

We are making steady progress, albeit slow, in achieving gender representivity within the ranks of the Executive and Heads of Department. Recently we appointed a second woman into the Executive Council. We have also appointed three women as Heads of Department. With additional vacancies in Heads of the Department of Education, Social Welfare and Population Development, Works, Community Safety and Liaison and Housing, we have an opportunity to further redress this imbalance.

It is with great pleasure that I would like to welcome today our newest Heads of Department: Ms. S Khan at Sport and Recreation; Ms. C G Gumbi-Masilela at Traditional and Local Government Affairs; Ms Yasmine Baccus at Community Safety and Liaison; and, Mr. B Ntanzi at Arts, Culture and Tourism.

If one looks at employment in the Senior Management Service of the provincial government, it is reasonably representative from a demographic perspective. However, regarding gender representativeness, 78% are males and only 22% are women. Clearly more needs to be done to achieve our 50% gender equity target. Departments will be presenting to Executive Council their revised equity plans by the end of March 31 2005.

As a new government, our first objective has been to establish a new governance framework for the province. Based on new provincial priorities and high leverage activities that were adopted in September 2004, we are now able to work in a much more integrated manner through a revised Cabinet Cluster System.

Provincial Constitutional Process

In October last year, we tabled a draft Provincial Constitution in this House. All political parties were given until January 2005 to table their submissions.

As I have stated many times, we saw this as an opportunity to, at long last, provide for the recognition of His Majesty the King while also creating the opportunity to expand Executive Council to broaden political representivity and to achieve a gender balance.

Based on the national Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act, province-specific legislation has been crafted wherein the role, status and powers of the Monarch are recognised. This bill, which has now been opened for public comment, also elaborates on the role of traditional leaders in governance through forums such as the House of Traditional Leaders, District Houses and Traditional Councils.

We have now received draft constitutional proposals from all other parties. The Legislature has appointed a Constitutional Ad Hoc Committee. A Panel of Constitutional Experts consisting of the following persons: Advocate AM Annandale, Professor W Friedman and Professor K Govender, has been appointed which will look into submissions of the various political parties and other stakeholders for:

* Constitutionality or otherwise of the draft proposals or parts thereof;
* Issues of Commonality and Disagreement
* Public Comments and Disagreement
* Differences that are subject to negotiations

The panel must submit by 4 April 2005, and the Ad Hoc Committee should have reported to the Legislature by 15 April 2005

We are on course to complete this process by May.

Mr Speaker, I am happy that the Legislature has finalised the appointment of two parliamentarians, Mr Senzo Mchunu and Rev CJ Mtetwa to serve as the liaison between the Legislature and His Majesty the King.

Building the Partnership with Local Governments

We committed ourselves in May last year to strengthen relations between the provincial and local governments, to coordinate services and to support local government as the cornerstone of development.

An important goal that we set in 2004 was the establishment of a Premier’s Coordinating Forum to act as a platform for close cooperation and dialogue between the executives of provincial and local governments.

This Forum would begin to deal with the vexing issue of integrating the inter-sectoral and inter-sphere structures that have, in the first ten years of government, largely been operating in isolation from each other.

At an Intergovernmental Relations Summit held in February this year, support in principle was obtained from the Metro, the District Municipalities and Organised Local Government for the establishment of the KwaZulu-Natal Premier’s Coordinating Forum before the end of March this year. This will be the first Provincial Coordinating Forum in the country that is fully aligned with the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act.

In addition, the workshop expressed support for formalisation of the sectoral forums and the creation of district coordinating forums to foster better relations between district and local municipalities.

Honourable members, these processes will take us closer to making the alignment and coordination of strategies and priorities across the three spheres of government a reality. I will be meeting with the Minister of Provincial and Local Government again this year as a follow-up to previous interactions in 2004 to fast track local government transformation. Core interventionist programmes of national government have now been aligned and will be at the centre of our own provincial programmes.

The roll out of Project Consolidate is now well underway in the 29 municipalities that have been targeted for special intervention and assistance in the provision of basic services. Similarly the programme designs for Community Development Workers and the Expanded Public Works Programme have now been completed and are ready for aggressive rollout in the new financial year.

Mr. Speaker, these programmes illustrate that we are creating the capacity to implement interventions systematically and across the full spectrum of government organisations.

New Partnerships for Development of KwaZulu-Natal

Over the last year, we have received a number of scientific reports that clearly outline the challenges we face as a Province.

I made public a Profile of the Province in my State of the Province Address on 25 May 2004. The National Department of Provincial and Local Government presented a profile of municipal performance in this Province to the Extended Cabinet on 25 June. Most recently the Provincial Ten Year Review has been finalised in December 2004.

As I’ve stated many times, this information described conditions in our province which are dire and, frankly, wholly unacceptable. But, Mr. Speaker, these reports, while tremendously helpful in understanding our challenges, are summaries of the province as a whole. And we all know only too well that conditions are not uniform throughout KwaZulu-Natal. Our history has created a province of uneven development.

We have therefore placed the highest priority on the development of tools to allow us to understand at a very specific level, which areas and which people need to receive the priority for the services of this government and how to deal with the challenges of the first and second challenges.

Following receipt of these reports, we immediately commissioned the development of a provincial Geographic Information System to provide the means to analyse in more detail the condition of the province and its people. A nerve centre is being created in the Office of the Premier to support the critical decisions of government on the allocation of resources, to maximise their impact.

Completion of the overall Provincial GIS will take some time, but the poorest in our province do not have the luxury of time. Poverty reflects the absence of the most basic services – water and sanitation, access and energy – and most often hope. We have therefore placed an immediate priority on the creation of a geographic expression of poverty and the indicators that allow us to understand in detail the particular needs of our communities.

This project is analysing the best available information related to such things as income level, lack of schooling, access to services and the incidence of HIV and AIDS. It must be noted that there is a direct correlation between the incidence of HIV and AIDS and poverty.

Mr. Speaker, We are now able to give poverty an address!

We have already received the preliminary results of our poverty mapping and we are using this information to redirect resources to providing basic services and infrastructure to the poorest of the poor.

Honourable members, we are pleased to provide you with copies of the first poverty map for KwaZulu-Natal.

The Provincial GIS will also support the new province wide monitoring and evaluation system, which will be implemented this year. And, most importantly, the system will serve to capacitate the rollout of the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy, ensuring measurable targets and benchmarks can be established for the longer term.

Mr Speaker, allow me to make just a few observations on the condition of our province as it relates to the way forward.

All of the reports on the condition of the Province in the last year have emphasised the lack of progress in the provision of basic services and infrastructure in KwaZulu-Natal. The number of municipalities, where less than 60% of households have access to basic services of piped water, sanitation, refuse removal and electricity, is the highest in the country, making us the poorest performer. Infrastructure is still a major challenge, especially for schools.

All of the reports confirm that, over the last decade, the provincial economy displayed generally weak and unstable growth performance.

The conclusion one must come to, Mr Speaker, is that, in spite of significant effort by many, little real progress has been made in the last ten years in terms of meeting the basic needs of our people and setting a path for growth and development.

Mr Speaker, it is clear that the traditional approaches to service delivery have not been effective enough. In development terms, we have a state of emergency!

Extra-ordinary interventions are required to bridge the gap between the first and second economies and eliminate the disparity in services to our people.

Mr Speaker, What is needed is a new partnership for development in KwaZulu-Natal. An integrated partnership approach is required whereby we can consolidate and build on the individual efforts of all stakeholders.

We need to build on the work that has begun in integrating government services through inter-sectoral programmes that span regional and provincial boundaries.

Building a non-racial society

Mr Speaker, we need to ask ourselves whether as a country or province we have moved towards normalising relationships among our people in line with the constitutional vision of creating a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic society based on freedom and equality.

This issue has again been raised by the President in his response to the debate on the State of the Nation Address on 17 February 2005 when he said:

“…there are certain outcomes in terms of the development of our country that are fundamental to the very being of the ANC and therefore our government….One of these is the building of a non-racial society consistent with the goal stated in the Freedom Charter and the constitution that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in their diversity. This means that we must realise the goal of the transformation of our country away from its racist past while simultaneously pursuing the corollary objectives of national reconciliation and cohesion.”

We have ourselves, on numerous occasions, reflected on the need to harness the diversity of our people, be they African, Indian, White or Coloured in building a peaceful, non-racial KwaZulu Natal.

It is also clear to us that building a non-racial society cannot be left only to the goodness of our hearts. Educational and other legislative measures need to be pursued in addressing the scourge of racism in our country. This is why we have supported measures like affirmative action, employment equity and black economic empowerment. These measures are deliberately designed to address the socio-economic disparities created by our racist colonial past. We once again call for new partnerships in building a new society founded on human dignity, equality, social justice and non-racialism.

As the President stated:

“All of us would have to internalise that our very collective future depends on the ability of all our people to understand that the success of black South Africa is conditional on the success of white South Africa, and that the success of white South Africa is conditional on the success of black South Africa.

If indeed we all came to understand this, together we would have to answer the question as to what white South Africa should do to ensure that black South Africa succeeds, and what black South Africa should do to ensure that white South Africa succeeds.

In answering this question, we would have to make a determination about the price each one of us is ready to pay to contribute to the greater good, without which our better future cannot be guaranteed.”

Building a Partnership for Growth and Development

The South African economy is characterised by the existence of the first and the second economy. The first economy is highly technological, is backed by a sophisticated banking and communication system, and has high productive output. The second economy is survivalist in nature, highly unregulated, has a high labour absorptive capacity. The provincial economy, like the rest of the country, still languishes within the confines of a “dual” economy.

Our business sector has been constituted along the same lines. There were business chambers for the first economy represented in the main by the white capital and black chambers representing the near informal business sectors. As the provincial government we are very pleased of the unification KwaZulu-Natal Chamber of business and the election of Mr Lucky Moloi as its first president. In the same vein we wish to encourage other town chambers to speed up their processes of unification so as to facilitate better engagement between business and government.

We have no choice but to embrace each other around common objectives that were articulated by the President himself in his State of the Nation address, of “eradicating poverty and underdevelopment, within the context of a thriving and growing First Economy and the successful transformation of the Second Economy.”

As part of South Africa which is a Developmental State, KwaZulu-Natal is a developmental province. The common objectives that we are seeking a partnership with business to achieve include:

* Increase investment
* Increase the competitiveness of the regional economy
* Broaden participation in the economy
* Develop skills
With an objective of reducing, and eventually eliminating the gap between the two economies, together with business, we have to engage in a strategic gear that seeks to achieve the following:
* The creation and maintenance of a discussion forum similar in nature and concept to the Durban Growth Coalition
* The implementation of strategic investment programmes that will address the broader province including the small towns
* The implementation of Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment

As a provincial government we will bring to the table the reform of the procurement system. This vital tool enables the government to speed up the transformation of the economy. At the present moment 80% of our procurement expenditure goes to some 10% of our suppliers. This situation is clearly untenable and it is our desire to change that immediately. We seek an inclusive business sector that is spread throughout the Province thereby bringing the necessary jobs to the local level.

We are acutely aware of the problem of fronting that has confronted government during the first phase of business reforms. We are also aware of the many men and women of integrity in the business sector as well as the majority of black people that want to do business in the correct way. These are the people we want to work with and change this Province so that it truly is the Province, which belongs to all, who live in it black and white.

Our province has massive development potential. Not only is KwaZulu-Natal the gateway province to South Africa, but this status will be further entrenched by the establishment and relocation of the airport to the new site at La Mercy; the development of the Durban-Gauteng corridor and the massive investment by Spoornet in the two ports of Richards’ Bay and Durban.

The provinces competitive advantage lies in mass scale agriculture development in the second economy. Our information is that the agriculture development lags the real potential. We are acutely aware that this potential cannot only be fulfilled by the first economy, but will in the main benefit from harnessing small growers that are in the rural countryside.

To the countryside

Up to now the village has been silent and the city has been silent about the village. If we are to address the problem of the two economies this must immediately come to an end. By developing the countryside we are in fact also addressing the problems imposed by unplanned urbanisation.

It is well documented, in various statistical reviews of KwaZulu-Natal that the majority of poor people live in resource poor rural communities.

It has thus been clear for some time now that it will take an agrarian revolution to free KwaZulu-Natal from hunger and grinding poverty.

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs is now fully committed to a people centred development approach that will put emerging farmers more firmly in control of the development of their farming enterprises, including co-operatives, and close the glaring gap between our potential and actual agricultural production.

Siyavuna Farmers Associations, together with Commodity Associations, are currently being established throughout KwaZulu-Natal. This new dispensation has brought hope to millions of farmers whose plight and potential to develop has been so ignored in the past. Increasingly the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs is developing new policy frameworks and programmes that specifically target the subsistence and emerging farmer sector with assistance to meet food security needs, to market surplus production and, ultimately, to claim an equitable market share in all agricultural products and their value chains.

I do not want to dwell on the specifics of this Department’s many new initiatives. However, it would be remiss of me not to mention that it is the intention to access the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport and Community Safety and Liaison’s Zibambele savings clubs (95% women headed households) to assistance to form food security and market produce co-operatives. Here I would like to, once again, extend a warm word of welcome to Professor Zhanxi Lin who will be working with the Department over the next three years to initiate and develop our dry land rice and fungi (mushroom) projects. Professor Lin has an enviable record, both in China and in the developing world, for successfully implementing similar projects which have made a significant impact on reducing poverty and creating genuine wealth within farming communities.

I would also like to use this occasion to commend the pioneering and innovative initiatives to assist livestock owners to form associations, to rehabilitate dip tanks and sale yard facilities and to progressively acquire an equitable share of the livestock industry in KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa. In this regard it is important to draw your attention to the fact that, while in South Africa the commercial herd comprises 65% of the total cattle herd, the situation prevailing in KwaZulu-Natal is that two thirds of our provincial herd is owned by black farmers and is conservatively estimated to have a value of some R4 billion. In terms of value and the number of producers involved there is no rural industry sector better placed than the livestock sector to benefit from broad based black economic empowerment support systems and to fast track an agrarian revolution in KwaZulu-Natal. This initiative thus has profound implications for poverty reduction, the creation of wealth within resource poor communities and the diversification of the rural economy through a wide variety of value added products.

In a relatively short space of time KwaZulu-Natal is now firmly on track to eradicate hunger, to create new rural income opportunities and to end the grinding poverty of millions. We are committed to a people centred approach to rural development that builds on the knowledge of poor people, that targets public sector procurement to create new markets and builds a new co-operative movement to challenge the open market.

Youth Issues

Last week I addressed the Provincial Youth Summit, which took place in Port Shepstone. It was our young leaders and entrepreneurs at the Summit who recommended that the KwaZulu-Natal Youth Commission Act be amended to allow the Youth Commission to be designated as a public entity, making it self sufficient and able to sustain itself.

Our government has committed itself to create a productive and progressive population through skills development, education and training, instilling a culture of Ubuntu and creating opportunities for development.

As a further initiative towards the development of our youth, we have reached agreement with the National and Provincial Commissioners of the Girl Guides movement to financially assist this very worthy body in its endeavours to empower and capacitate girls and young women.

The Girl Guides programme includes education and training on how to deal with HIV and AIDS, violence against women, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, leadership and life skills and entrepreneurship.

We intend to pursue similar arrangements with the Boy Scouts movement this year.

With the 2010 Soccer World Cup coming to South Africa, we intend to draw more young people, particularly rural, in organised sports, including soccer.

We will use the expanded Public Works programme to build the necessary infrastructure, including stadiums; to support this initiative. In this way we intend to create massive new work and recreational opportunities for young people in KwaZulu-Natal.

Office of the Status of Women

The Director has been appointed. The South African Women in Dialogue was launched in our province in August at the Women’s Summit, which was very well attended. This is a forum where rural and urban women comprising all races and different social backgrounds meet to discuss issues important to women.

Izimbizo – Listening to the People

In keeping with our goal of bringing government closer to the people, and of making it relevant and responsive to the people, we have adopted new processes of engagement. Izimbizo are a creative way of opening up channels for the people to engage the leadership in an open forum.

We have taken a decision to hold Izimbizo in all Districts and in Metro. Izimbizo were held in Bergville, Sweetwaters, Inkandla and Jolivet. All remaining districts and metro will be visited by the end of this year, with the Izimbizo process broadened to include sectoral izimbizo.

Also the departmental coordinators have been tasked to create a programmatic response to the areas we have visited.

Transforming Service Delivery

The traditional departmental silos of the provincial administration have clearly not been up to the challenges KwaZulu-Natal has faced since democracy. Steps are being taken to create a more integrated approach to service delivery including the alignment of service delivery boundaries with municipal government. Integration will be introduced throughout the service delivery chain, addressing the planning and delivery of infrastructure and the need for coordinated service delivery at the community level.

At my request, the National Department of Public Service Administration (DPSA) and the Office of the Public Service Commission (PSC) completed a high level review of the readiness of provincial departments to complete their service delivery responsibilities. Their findings indicate major shortcomings at both the corporate and departmental levels.

Under the direction of the Office of the Premier, a comprehensive turn around strategy is being developed and will be fully activated in April. Work with the DPSA team has already started in some departments. DPSA has offered to continue to work with our provincial team to create fundamental transformation of the provincial administration. Included in this transformation is the need to completely overhaul the human resource management system of government to create new processes in support of effective strategic planning, performance management and discipline.

The work we have commenced in 2004 to develop a provincial Citizen’s Charter has progressed well. With the assistance of a team of experts from the UK the draft framework that is due to be published in April 2005 is now nearing finalisation.

This Charter is our commitment to quality services that is delivered expeditiously and aims to empower the citizens in relation to public services they have a constitutional right to receive.

As promised last year, we have moved quickly to establish an aggressive new approach to combating fraud and corruption. Targeted areas for this year are:

* Elimination of “ghost employees” on the pay-roll of government through the effective utilisation of the PERSAL system and head-counts of officials
* Elimination of “ghost beneficiaries” from social welfare grants
* Accelerated response time to audit findings on incidents of fraud and corruption within the administration
* Punitive measures against service providers that are unable to deliver services to the required standards

Quarterly reports will be made public on the progress made with the anti-fraud and corruption campaign.

To create an effective and responsive public service requires an investment in the development of our staff. In line with world best practice in public sector management, we will begin the development of a Provincial Public Service Training Academy in this year.

Fast Tracking Classroom Construction – Our Response to Infrastructure Backlog in Education

In the State of the Nation Address, the President confirmed that our most urgent and important infrastructure priority is the provision of proper classrooms for all learners. In KwaZulu-Natal, we face a daunting backlog of over 14,000 classrooms. Our provincial government is committed to finding the resources and streamlining the development process to allow this backlog to be cleared by 2009. Ambitious – yes. Achievable – yes, but we must fundamentally change our whole approach to the development of classrooms.

In the past few months, we have piloted a new streamlined approach to building classrooms. We have now directed that this approach be further developed and applied to the whole of our classroom construction programme. A new partnership is being formed by the departments of Education, Works and Treasury to investigate options and provide recommendations to Executive Council on how to completely eliminate the backlog of classrooms by 2009.

We will build at least 1500 new classrooms by March 2006 while we begin the pre-planning, design and real estate acquisition to support a significant increase in construction for the remaining years to 2009.

To further support learning throughout the province, we will be developing nine new libraries in the rural areas by March 2006. This includes new facilities in Hlabisa, Impendle, Jozini, Izinqoleni and Mbabazane.

Education for Development: Business, Technical and Vocational Skills Training

It has become an unwelcome reality that many of our high school graduates leave school completely unprepared for the world outside. They matriculate with subjects that do not prepare them for the demands of our economy. They are unemployable and they are incapable of creating jobs.

We must therefore re-orientate our education towards a new thrust in order to increase the capacity for business, technical and vocational training. As a developmental provincial government we must direct much more effort to providing our people with the skills needed to function effectively within the economy.

At present we have 1,872 public secondary schools of which only 49 are technical / vocational and an additional 19 provide a combination of general and technical/vocational education.

History shows that in the past, we have even done away with technical and vocational curriculum in schools that were designed and established precisely for this purpose.

As early as 1898, Dr John Langalibalele Dube, uMafukuzela, the first President-General of the African National Congress, established the Ohlange Institute as an industrial school modeled on the Tuskegee Institute of Booker T. Washington in the United States.

We will convert the Ohlange Institute to what uMafukuzela envisaged it to be – an institute whose aim is to create a new person through education and training of the head, the heart and the hand. The number of technical/ vocational schools will be significantly increased by 2009.

A new programme will be initiated this year to recapitalise the 9 FET Colleges and their 62 delivery sites to improve the delivery of skills directly relevant to industry and the economy.

Within the existing school system, more emphasis is to be directed to mathematics, science, English and information and communications technology. To support this end, 50% of all schools will be linked to information technology by March 2006.

Success of this initiative will rely heavily on the kind of partnership that we will enter into with the private sector. In this regard, I am happy announce that some business leaders have stepped forward and had themselves in the progressive partnerships for development in our province.

Amongst these business leaders is Arnold Zulman and the Victor Daitz foundation. In a letter written to our government on Friday, (February 25), they state, I quote:

“We would like to bring to your attention the incredible success of Business / Government partnerships in the field of education. Comtech in Umlazi has been taken to its present high level by enthusiasm and visionary support of Mr Arnold Zulman. Not only has he and his foundation put enormous effort into the school, but he has also supported it financially in a substantial way.

“The Jewish Community has also, in numerous ways, been in partnership with government, the latest venture being the distribution of well over one thousand computers to various government schools.”

Other important partnerships have been entered into with organisations such Microsoft and the Divine Life society. We challenge business in KwaZulu-Natal to adopt a set of schools and support them financially and otherwise.

We welcome these initiatives and we want to appeal to more business principals to partner in our endeavour to develop KwaZulu-Natal into place we can all be proud to call home. From next year matriculation examinations will be offered in higher only. We are doing away with the standard grade.

Health Services

Our other major thrust in providing service to our people, is the provision of health services. Again, our challenges are daunting! We must redouble our efforts in addressing the scourge of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. To this end, I am establishing a new Chief Directorate in the Office of the Premier to coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive, integrated response to HIV and AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal.

Our province is a national leader in the creation of new capacity to roll out ARV treatment. The number of patients receiving ARV treatment in KwaZulu-Natal will increase to 30,000 by March 2006.

We are initiating a major new health support programme to reduce mortality in women, children and vulnerable groups by extending the community health worker programme and focusing more effort on step down home based care.

Health infrastructure is the other major construction priority for our provincial government. While we are placing increased priority on classroom construction, we will not be neglecting the development of much needed new health facilities.

In 2005/2006, we will be aggressively broadening the district health system. We will complete the construction of ten new clinics and two new community health centres. We will also initiate the construction of two new district hospitals.

To further support the district health system, we will also be putting in service at least 150 new ambulances. We will also begin implementation of an Information and Communication System for patient and management information in all hospitals.

Eco-cultural Tourism

Eco-cultural tourism must become the next major emerging sector in KwaZulu-Natal. Our new Arts, Culture and Tourism department, in cooperation with Economic Development and other stakeholders, will be developing an overall action plan for the aggressive growth of this industry. Our spectacular natural geography and our place as home of the Zulu culture provide enormous potential for growth in tourism.

Transportation and Infrastructure

Continued growth in our economy must be underpinned by strong infrastructure. We must cement our position as the trade hub of Africa with concrete action on plans for the King Shaka Airport and the Dube Trade Port.

Within the province, our roads infrastructure continues to improve while our roads development programmes have become the model for black economic empowerment and gender equity:

* Zibambele “Doing it ourselves”, projecting 27 080 contracts this year
* Vukuzakhele “Arise and build yourself” targeting 1083 contracts
* African Renaissance Roads Upgrading Program

The Department of Transport’s outstanding performance on employment generation has led to its role coordinating the province’s Extended Public Works Programme which is targeting 47 000 jobs.

Provincial housing stock will continue to be devolved to municipalities. eThekwini is the first municipality to receive approval-in-principle for accreditation to administer the housing function in the Metro area.

Pride in Our Province and Our People

To better coordinate our profile as a people, Amafa are now located in the Premier’s Office. In December 2004, together with the Chairperson of Amafa, Mr Arthur Koningkramer, we visited the Civil Rights Museums in the United States of America, which included Birmingham, Memphis where Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, and Atlanta. This visit clarified our own plans about the construction of a “must see” museum and multi-media centre, which will tell the story of the Zulu people and the people of KwaZulu-Natal. We will elaborate on this through a public participation process. The public participation process that is going to be generated by this will be unprecedented in the country and will involve:

* Musicians;
* Historians of all periods;
* Writers; and
* Poets of all periods and cultures.

We stand before you in the last day of February, a very significant month in our cultural revival. On the 11th of February alone, is a day in which Nelson Mandela was released from prison fifteen years ago. But to our shame, what has not often been remembered is that this is the day in which Mafukuzela Dube died in 1946. Reflecting about the Zulu people and the month of February, leads me to deal with two matters that relate to two of our distinguished Kings, King Cetshwayo kaMpande and his son and heir, King Dinuzulu, the great grandfather our reigning Monarch, King Zwelithini.

I know that the issues I shall be raising lie close to the heart of our people.

Mr Speaker, I trust that Honourable Members will agree that our government is giving ample evidence that it has a deep commitment to building a brighter future for all our people and that reconciliation is a guiding principle in our quest to build a better tomorrow.

To face the future with confidence and hope requires also that we carefully consider our past. It is to the end that my government wishes to erect two statues to our famous Kings, Kings Cetshwayo and King Dinuzulu. To honour these tow great icons to our struggle for freedom and dignity at this point of our history will prove richly symbolic.

Who can differ with me when I say that the unprovoked war of 1879 and the settlement imposed on the Zulu Kingdom in the same year had yielded a harvest of bloodshed and disorder of a grand scale? We owe it to our future that we remember this. We do so not in a spirit of bitterness and a desire to exact revenge, but with a commitment to build a future, which will not allow such injustices to be perpetrated again. And we do so with the same generosity of spirit for which both these Kings were known and which they have, in a very real sense bequeathed as a heritage to the Zulu people.

Allow me to begin with King Dinuzulu. The war of 1879 had, as already pointed out unleashed disorder in KwaZulu-Natal and unleashed a terrible civil war. The Usuthu, spurred on chiefly by Mehlokazulu and Ndabankulu, decided to seek the help of the Boers in their battle with Mandlakazi, thus triggering the entry of white people into the affairs of Zululand. In June 1884 they defeated the Mandlakazi with the help of Boers guns and the battle of Etshaneni, near Mkhuze. Among those who became involved on the side of King Dinuzulu was one Louis Botha, who was destined to become the first Prime Minister of what was to become the Union of South Africa in 1910.

Significantly, Mr Speaker, one of the first things he did when he became Prime Minister was to arrange for his friend King Dinuzulu to be released from prison and to be settled on a farm near Middleburg. This release of an important political prisoner was an act of reconciliation, which I am sure the Zulu people will not easily forget. Now, Honourable Members, some of you may be aware of the fact that a fine statue to Louis Botha stands at the bottom end of Berea Road as one enters this great industrial and commercial heart of our Province.

Mr Speaker, it is my government’s intention to honour King Dinuzulu by erecting a statue to him opposite his comrade in arms, Louis Botha. We should like this to happen this year, so that it can be unveiled during the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Bhambatha uprising of 1906. I shall be asking our Heritage agency, Amafa, to work together with eThekwini municipality to make the arrangements for the erection of the statue. I should wish this to be a public process so that our people can identify with and have an input into the project.

The second statue is of even greater historical significance. As we embark on our second decade of freedom it is of cardinal importance that we honour King Cetshwayo who sacrificed so much in defence and freedom of his people. This is a man although broken in spirit and imprisoned, as a prisoner of war in the Castle in Cape Town, never surrendered his dignity despite monstrous injustices inflicted on him and his people through unprovoked and unjust war.

The King worked tirelessly for his release and restoration and as actively supported in his quest for just by that great son and daughters of this city, Bishop Colenso and his daughters. On September 26, 1881, he was informed that his request to meet Queen Victoria face to face had been granted and he set sail for England in July 1882.

Mr Speaker, although his meeting with Queen Victoria can be seen as a personal victory, it was, alas to end in tragedy. Yes, the King was set free and restored to his divided kingdom in 1883. But, as I have already pointed out, Sir Garnet Wolseley, had seen to it that he was set to harvest little but bloodshed and chaos in his once great kingdom.

Many of the great noblemen were killed in an attack at Ondini within months of the King’s return and the King was forced to flee and seek sanctuary at eShowe. He died in February, 1884, in the very month in which I am addressing this Honourable House, 121 years later.

Mr Speaker, who can fail to notice the irony of the act that it is Queen Victoria whose statue stand at the portal to this democratic Parliament. And that King Cetshwayo, a noble King who suffered monumental injustice at the hands of military forces acting in the name of Queen Victoria, remains unrecognised in this capital city? This simply has to be put right. And we wish to do so with all the dignity and decorum which marked the character of our great King Cetswayo.

I shall be asking Amafa to implement our government’s plan to erect a statue to King Cetshwayo in front of this House as a matter of priority. It is important that Amafa act a erection of the statue and its sitting must be done in terms of the KwaZulu-Natal Heritage Act, an Act of this Parliament.

I would like to see a public process and would encourage Amafa to see to it that my desire to build a brighter, better, secure and prosperous future for all who call this great province home.

Mr Speaker, not only is our province endowed with cultural heritage but also with talent. We have produced icons that have made their mark not only in the country but also in the international arena. In this regard, many names come to mind. It is appropriate at this stage Mr Speaker that I take this opportunity to congratulate our legendary music group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo for having won the prestigious Grammy Award.

May I also congratulate Leleti Khumalo, also another icon from our province, for her role in Yesterday which has been nominated for an Oscar Award. Cecilia Bobak, formerly of Howick, is in line for an Oscar Award for her set design in the film musical, Phantom of the Opera. The film, Yesterday, shot in KwaZulu-Natal and produced by local film personality Anant Singh is also in line for an Oscar.

This just shows the amount of talent we have in the province. We need to celebrate that talent and continue to encourage our youth to follow these outstanding role models. We must understand that we are truly world class.

Usage of IsiZulu in our Education and Government Business

Last year we announced our intention to develop a system of Community Colleges. Our resolve in this regard remains and we will complete an implementation plan for developing such a system by July 2005.

We also need to promote and celebrate our languages which are our pride. In our State of the Province address in May last year, we noted that most of the country’s indigenous languages were getting increasingly marginalised. We undertook to counter this by establishing a Desk which would work with the Commission on the Promotion of rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities in terms of Section 85 of the country’s constitution.

Recently, The Sunday Tribune (13 February 2005) reported that, according to the United Nations estimates, half of the 6 000 languages spoken around the world will disappear in less than a century. Roughly a third of those are spoken in Africa and about 200 already have fewer than 500 speakers.

The report went on to say that “already, 96% of the languages spoken on earth are spoken by just 4% of the population. Experts estimate that half the people in the world now use in their daily life one of eight languages: Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Portuguese and French.”

A recent KwaZulu-Natal Government cabinet Lekgotla heard alarming news of the diminishing levels of usage of isiZulu by the youths of our province.

His Majesty the King addressed us in isiZulu on Friday. Would it not be a complete disgrace if whole generations of our youths completely fail to understand their Monarch?

We therefore need to actively promote and integrate the use of isiZulu, the predominant language in KwaZulu-Natal, more fully into our school curricula and in formal processes of government business. From January 2006, all public schools in our province will offer isiZulu as one of the languages taught.

Mr Speaker, I also want to congratulate you and the Honourable members of the legislature, for making the decision recently that, with effect from 1 August 2005, the formal affairs of the Legislature will be conducted in both isiZulu and English, including simultaneous translation and the production of Hansard and other official documents of the legislature. Your leadership must be applauded.

Development through sport

Mr Speaker, the 2010 World Cup presents opportunities to harness our diverse energy to build a non-racial society.

We used to produce world-renowned soccer icons.

We need to return our province to its former glory so that we can also become world champions, come 2010. We are preparing hard for this World Cup and we intend to host some of these games, in particular the semi-finals.

I have appointed a Committee of Ministers under the chairpersonship of the MEC for Sports and Recreation. This Committee is extended to include mayor of Ethekwini. This Committee has met for the first and will use its collective capacity to ensure that maximum benefit is gained by this province in the staging of the Soccer World Cup.

We are also making every effort to use this opportunity to develop new facilities in rural areas.

I am pleased that KwaZulu Natal will be hosting the under-19 World Cup Rugby Games from 1 to 17 April 2005. It is also good news for our province that the City of Durban has been awarded the right to host these games for two years in a row. This will not only have positive spin-offs for our economy but it will further enhance our image as a province.

Conclusion

The old adage goes: We are what we do and not what we say. Therefore, Honourable members, the time for grand talk is over. It is time to act, for the 9,5 million people who gave us a mandate to lead expect a qualitative and tangible improvement of their lives over the next year and the years to come.

We can only achieve what we have set out to do if all of us as the people of KwaZulu-Natal follow the example of our fore-bearers in Kliptown in 1955 and ensure that people shall share in the country’s wealth and that of our province. There shall be work and security.

Peace, democracy and development are not negotiable.

Masisukume Sakhe!

I thank you

Issued by: Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
28 February 2005