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29 November 2007

Chairperson of the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders, Nkosi Mathanzima
Chairpersons of other provinces
President of Contralesa, Nkosi Phathekile Holomisa
Ikumkani zonke
MEC of Housing, Local Government and Traditional Affairs
Executive mayor of Amatole District, Alderman Somyo

Thank you very much for inviting me to address this important institution of our country on the occasion of your 10th anniversary celebrations.

I must say I am honoured to be speaking to leaders of your standing in our society who on a daily basis toils to instil that important organ of morality that we seem to be losing.

Indeed, the role of traditional leadership in our country cannot be overemphasised in this juncture in our country as we are engaged in vigorous attempts to reconstruct the soul of our nation.

Your role in our society is very important because as Africans we have particular ways within an ambit of morality and ubuntu that guides us on how to conduct ourselves as people and more importantly as leaders.

As custodians of this African culture and preachers of moral regeneration, I understand the immensity of your task. It is not an easy one.

It is not easy Mr Chair in the new dispensation as the country faces a variety of emerging challenges that includes moral fibre decay, the scourge of HIV and AIDS, crime and fading of indigenous knowledge and languages amongst our young.

Your institution therefore is of strategic significance in partnering with government to find common solution that will assist us to appropriately respond to these challenges.

These challenges we can face in the same way the traditional leaders confronted colonialism and stood firm against Apartheid.

The participation of the traditional leaders in the struggle against apartheid and colonial invasion speaks volumes of the wisdom, strength and the capability to help government fight these challenges.

Our traditional leaders did so to protect our cultures and customs and to sustain our sacred values of ubuntu that today exists in feebleness.

We must ask ourselves what more in the next decade can we do to make justice to the ideals of our forefathers.

In Nguni, they correctly capture this by saying: Indlela ibuzwa kwaphambili (you get direction from the elders).

Mr Chair, I am particularly concern on the question of school violence that persists in our school premises. This matter paints a gloomy picture of diminishing of respect to one another as well as respect for life. It further undermines the spirit of ubuntu and togetherness.

It also points to what I can call a sick society where our kids come from and where they derive the influence of non-African practices.

We must, in the next decade, intensify our intervention in this regard. I am saying this Mr Chair, because the learners we see today are the leaders of tomorrow. And what country and society will we be if such unbecoming practices continue.

I wish to state that part of the intervention in our African Renaissance crusade should be a call to the current leaders to lead by example. We must ask ourselves what breed of leaders do we have and what impact do they have in society, particularly to our youth.

While we find it easy to shift blame to the youth because of an extent in which moral decay manifests through their lives, it is very disturbing to note that some of our leaders entrusted with public trust tend to betray the efforts of restoring pre-colonial notions that clearly define us as Africans.

This includes teachers in schools who sleep with younger learners with or without their consent; it includes those who steal from pensioners while being charged with ensuring that the country's social security system works as part of the broader poverty alleviation strategy. It includes any one who steals public money because that is stealing from the poor.

Our gathering here takes place shortly after the country launched the annual campaign of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children. I wish to state that traditional leaders need to be critical partners of this campaign and be in the forefront.

This because some men have misused and disguised under culture and customs to abuse women and we cannot allow that. They sought to interpret culture in a manner that justifies barbaric acts that promote women and child abuse. We need to defend our culture and guard against people who use it for their own ill accomplishment.

This in essence does not only undermine our inherited culture but also the advances brought by hard fought democracy. It betrays what this house stood for in the last ten years of its existence. This behaviour scorns the role of women that they played on 9 August 1956, when they staged a march at the Union Buildings to protest against the pass laws of 1950.

We must continue in a much broader scope to teach our young boys that manhood, superiority and power is not derived from beating women. Induku Ayina 'Mzi. We need to continue to fight this trend amongst older men as well advocating for the good family values.

I believe, given your achievements throughout ten years of your existence that you will be able to intensify your fight against these challenges.

I am particularly pleased about your achievement to forge partnerships with local municipalities in the province to reach our people on the ground.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Defence
29 November 2007