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13 March 2009

Programme director
Your worship the Executive Mayor, Maphetle Maphetle
Other Mayors and Councillors here present
Ms Motshoanetsi Lefoka, CEO of the South African Post Office
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

South Africa before 1994 was built on a culture of compulsion with communities forcibly compelled to think and act according to the dictates of the powers that be. Our people were violently suppressed and forced to obey laws that were intended to oppress them.

Part of the process of oppression entailed depriving our people of information that could empower them and make their lives better. The apartheid regime knew the old adage that knowledge is power and therefore actively ensured that our people had no access to important knowledge, information and data. This tallied with the fact that no basic services, generally, were extended to our people so that they could live their lives in decency.

It is for that reason that our freedom and democracy are built on the principle of participatory democracy, community involvement, and the provision of basic services in pursuit of a better life for all. Our Constitution entrenches the right to information as a fundamental right. It says, “Everyone has the right of access to any information held by the state, and any information that is held by another person and that is required for the exercise or protection of any rights.”

In our turn, we as government operate on the principle that a well informed society is best placed to fully enjoy and exercise democracy in its fullness. We believe in the statement slightly adapted by Carmen Martinez that “The more we increase the active participation and partnership with (our) people, the better we serve them. And the more comprehensively we work with them as service partners, the more we increase our public value, (as government), to the entire community.”

Indeed, there is no greater dignity for people than the dignity of being consulted and given space to freely express their views. There is no greater respect for communities than the respect of being given all the information possible in order to be empowered. Fundamental to governing people is the recognition of their humanity (botho ba bona) so that they are never taken for granted.

That is why at the local government level we have legislated the developmental approach, which essentially means public consultation and involvement. Our Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) are part of that, so is participatory budgeting. In both cases local government is obliged, by law, to consult our people in making plans for development, and in the allocation of monies for various projects. Our point of departure is that we must do nothing which affects our people without involving them. That is democracy.

We have also instituted the system of ward committees so that our people can have access to local government councils and councillors on matters to do with municipalities.

On broader service delivery issues we have introduced Community Development Workers (CDWs), whose role is to ensure that our people are informed about government services available to them and that government, in turn, is informed about our people’s experiences and expectations so that we can serve them even better.

On a much broader scale we hold Izimbizo (Dipitso), where our people meet government leaders and officials, at all levels, to pose questions and queries they might have, and present their concerns and expectations all in the interests of making our government receptive and responsive to our people.

What I am saying, Programme Director is that our government is a people’s government. It takes our people seriously, it cares about their views, and it is committed to ensuring that the quality of their lives is continuously improved.

That is why we are here today.

We are here today to turn the sod in a first step towards the construction of a Thusong Service Centre.

Our aim, as government, is to create multipurpose one stop centres where our people can access the various government services, such as applying for identity documents and receiving social grants, and receive all the help they require for their lives to be better and more convenient.

It is our goal to take government to our communities, which is why we have, so far, built Thusong Centres in all our district municipalities and in six of our local municipalities.

Our ultimate goal is to have a Thusong Centre in every municipality in our province, and we are on track if you consider that the centre we are starting to build here in Ikageng today is one of three we are building during the 2009/10 financial year.

Once this building is up and running our people should be able to receive government’s social and administrative services, office space, education and skills development opportunities, local economic development support, business support services, and information and communication services. All these should, in time, ensure that our people have access to opportunities for self development in different ways, making it possible for them to access jobs and escape poverty.

That is why we say, in the words of the popular song, “The people”, that this centre is for our people. As the song says:

This one’s for my people
The people
The very people
Listening here
And it don’t matter where (Out there)
This one’s for my people
The people
The very people
Listening here
And it don’t matter where (Out there)

For my people living downtown (it don’t matter where)
For my people living in the forest (out there)…
For my people in the island for my people in the crops (out there)
For my people in the snowstorms for my people in the heat waves (out there)
For my people being born and all my people in the graves (out there)
For my people in the penthouses and the others living under (out there)

Indeed, let the message go out to all the people. Let them know that this is for them. Let them celebrate the turning of the sod for their empowerment. Let them know that the future is a beautiful place to be. Let them know that there will be socio-economic development opportunities for them.

Tell them that there shall be skills to learn and chances to apply them. Tell them that they shall get the information they need and the services they require. Tell our people that the centre we are founding here today is their place of contact and communication with government. It is their meeting place with public servants and other providers of useful services. Indeed, it is their centre.

While you are at it please tell them that this centre provides them with the opportunity to enjoy the democracy that they and their loved ones suffered, and in some instances died, for. Tell them, therefore, about our forthcoming elections too, reminding them that it is because of their votes that we have government, and that it is because of their votes that government has a duty to serve them, including through centres such as the one we are establishing.

I thank South African Post Office for its sponsorship of these centres. It is because of institutions such as the post office that we are able, as a country, to achieve much more than government alone can. It is only through partnerships involving all sectors of our society that we shall be able to establish and run, sustainable, these centres and many more initiatives and interventions. That is why in its Manifesto for the forthcoming elections the ruling party says, “Working together we can do more.”

With those words of partnership, ladies and gentlemen, allow me please to wish the construction of this centre good progress in line with our plans, and may I wish this community a future filled with empowering information and services.

Thank you all.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
13 March 2009