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Speech by Western Cape Premier Lynne Brown to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) monthly elders meeting at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC)
10 March 2009.
I am very privileged to be able to speak to our mothers and fathers here today. Let me tell you that while I have been Premier for a very short time, I had taken the position asking myself, who in our society needed help most? For me, the answer was / is our children and our seniors. We have to make better lives for our children and seniors.
Firstly, our children will lead us out of poverty. In my case, my dad was a bus driver who worked hard to make sure that all my fees were paid and I could become a teacher, so now I have to take care of him. And so we must take care of our mothers and fathers.
Then, as government, we know if put some money into grandparents, grandchildren will have a better life. When I spoke with COSATU about how we could make the lives of our pensioners better, we started off saying we want to support 60 pensioners clubs, but, more than 100 registered. And that says that our seniors have something to say and something to give to our communities and we must support and encourage that.
We want to keep seniors active, which is why we host the golden games and encourage seniors to participate and stay active. Also how many of you have ever been up Table Mountain, or gone to Kirstenbosch? I know COSATU is making sure that you get to enjoy some of the beauty of this city. I am assisting by making sure that once a month a train is available for free to you to see these sights.
I know your pension has been increased, but that it is still not enough. We are working on it and one of the ways of working on it is to make sure that at least once a month you can enjoy your city. I am looking for partners to assist and I cannot imagine anyone saying no, they cannot help our seniors to get to the top of Table Mountain the mountain is there for us all to enjoy, it belongs to all of us. Of course, I am also preparing the way for when I am old, so I can also enjoy these trips.
But mostly, I cannot imagine not being able to say thank you to the people who led us out of hard times, who fed, clothed and put a roof over our heads, so thank you to all the seniors for your hard work and sacrifices. And thank you COSATU because Provincial Government could not have done it alone.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Western Cape Provincial Government
10 March 2009