[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

17 March 2009

* Chairperson of the Provincial House, Kgosi Mabe
* Deputy Chairperson, Kgosi Mankuroane
* Chairpersons of local houses, Kgosi Shole and Kgosi Matlapeng
* Deputy Chairpersons of local houses, Kgosi Lentswe and Kgosi Nawa
* Judge President, Mogweng Mogweng
* Representatives of the National House
* Representatives of all provincial houses
* Members of the Executive Council
* Members of Parliament
* Representatives of local municipalities
* Chairperson of the Bahumagadi Forum
* Dikgosi tsa gaetsho tsotlhe
* Bahumagadi le boMmadikgosi
* Distinguished guests
* Bagaetsho botlhe

Momentous era

Chairperson, this House sits at a time both auspicious and challenging for our country and our province.

This year is the fifteenth year of our freedom and democracy – and the contribution of our traditional leaders to the solidity of that democracy is immeasurable. That contribution extends to development and the betterment of our people's lives as Dikgosi have, over the years, co-operated with our municipalities in the delivery of basic services, such as water and electricity, to our communities, notably in the rural areas.

Indeed, Dikgosi continue to be a strong and valuable link in the chain of co-operative governance prescribed by our Constitution. The annual opening of this House, with all the spheres of our government represented, bears testimony to that.

This year is also the year of our fourth democratic elections. The non-partisan role of Dikgosi in encouraging popular participation in the election of our country's public representatives is, as always, highly appreciated.

It is also the year of the Confederations Cup as a prelude to our hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Our mobilisation, as leaders, of total unity behind both our national team and the national delivery of the event, is absolutely vital for the economic development – especially tourism – in our province, and the benefit of our communities.

Salutations, condolences and good wishes

Chairperson, it is with pleasure, humility and gratitude that I am here to exercise the honour of addressing this august institution – our Provincial House of Traditional Leaders – on its eighth sitting.

A month ago, when I delivered the State of the province Address (SOPA), I said our vision of a society free of poverty and underdevelopment lives on. As I stand here today poised to exercise the honour of addressing Dikgosi, let me restate that position: Our vision lives on.

Before I exercise the honour of speaking in some detail on the positive intergovernmental relations between us and our traditional leaders, let me please recognise the esteemed presence, among us, of representatives of the National House of Traditional Leaders as well as Amakhosi and Dikgosi le Bahumagadi from other provincial houses of traditional leaders. Let me also acknowledge the royal presence of Kgosi Ebineng Otsoaeng, Deputy Chairperson of the Botswana House of Traditional Leaders. Majesties, we are privileged to have all of you among us here today.

On a sombre note, Chairperson, we mark with deep sorrow and sadness the passing on, last year, of Kgosi TM Maselwane of Bakwana boo Modimosana ba Baselwane. Kgosi Thaganyane, too, who used to be a member of the House before areas Kgalagadi and Cassel were incorporated into the Northern Cape, has also been called to higher service. We also lost nine Dikgosana in the past year. As this has left some of our communities without recognised leadership, we have communicated the request for the relevant royal families to accelerate the process of filling these vacancies.

May the souls of all the departed rest in the bosom of our ancestral spirits as our condolences go to their families, friends and loved ones. Their loss is our nation's loss, for every nation owes its sustainable existence to its leaders, especially those, such as Dikgosi, at the grassroots.

We note, as well, that Kgosi Letlhogile, wa kwa Ganyesa, and Kgosi Motsatsi, advisor to the premier on traditional leadership, are unfortunately afflicted by ill-health. We pray for their speedy recovery so that they may continue to serve and lead their communities.

Achievements of the House

Chairperson, I am reliably informed that this sitting will be followed by a mega event in celebration of this House's achievements over the years. Indeed, there is much to celebrate, and I bring congratulatory messages from the people and the government of the Province.

It is worth celebrating that this House was the first Provincial House of Traditional Leaders to be established in the country. The inaugural Chairperson of the National Council of Traditional Leaders, now the National House of Traditional Leaders, was a member of this House. The House was also instrumental in the establishment of two Local Houses of Traditional Leaders in 2007. It has also played a pivotal role in the mediation and resolution of succession disputes.

Also in support of the wellness of traditional leadership and the welfare of traditional leaders the House has set up the North West Dikgosi Group Scheme – which includes funeral cover for Dikgosi and their spouses – and a Group Car Scheme for Dikgosi.

Because of its sound organisation the House has, over the years, commented on and made inputs into a number of laws referred to it, including the Communal Property Act 28 of 1996; the Communal Land Rights and Administration Act 11 of 2004; and the Municipal Systems Act of 2000. This process of active engagement with legislation is bound to be enhanced by the launch, in 2008, of the House's website with the help of the Department of Communications (DoC).

In terms of social responsibility beyond governance some members of the House are actively involved in community-based organisations, and in June 2008 the House itself launched the North West Traditional Leaders' HIV and AIDS Task Team.

More, Chairperson, of the successes and the leadership of this House on matters traditional will be revealed in the course of our address to this royal House. It suffices, for now, to say what we have here is a dynamic institution which is mellowing and evolving in time with the challenges of socio-political our milieu. What we have is a traditional leaders' House existing in a healthy and coherent relationship with government.

Traditional leaders and the global economic meltdown

Leadership is particularly crucial now as we face our biggest economic challenge since the advent of our democracy. We need the calm and considered leadership of our traditional leaders to help the most vulnerable of our communities – our rural people – navigate their way through this period of hardship. Our traditional leaders are perfectly placed to encourage their communities to undertake activities, such as small-scale farming and agriculture, to mitigate the effects of the economic slowdown we are currently experiencing. Our traditional leaders are best situated to mobilise our communities into the communal co-operation required to weather the worst of this economic depression, and therefore to keep our vision of our people's development alive.

Support for traditional leaders

We are of the firm belief that if our traditional leaders are to provide the quality of leadership and service required for these and other challenges, we have to continue their empowerment on all fronts. We have to build, Chairperson, on our track record of promulgating the right laws and regulations give relevant powers to traditional leaders. We have to build on our establishment of our Province's House of Traditional Leaders with its own secretariat and administrative support. We have to build on our construction, thus far, of seven fully furnished and administratively equipped traditional council office complexes, each at approximately R6,1 million. We have to build on our current construction of another one, and our completed renovation of another two, traditional council offices.

It is estimated that on our current budget scope it would take another thirty years to complete the programme of covering all our traditional leaders. That suggests a need for us to jointly mobilise the necessary resources to accelerate the programme so that within a reasonable period of time all our traditional leaders are infrastructurally and administratively capacitated to effectively and efficiently discharge their governance mandate.

This will continue our active and practical response to a point made in 2000 by Eustace Davie, then director, Free Market Foundation, that "As matters now stand, traditional leaders are accused of doing nothing for their people, yet they have been given neither power nor resources with which to provide infrastructure or services of any kind."

Indeed, Chairperson, it is our commitment to continuously affirm our traditional leaders' role in the empowerment of their communities within the framework of our country's Constitution.

Our concerted programme of building traditional council offices, Chairperson, has also had the important by-product of poverty alleviation among our rural communities – with hundreds of employment opportunities created. To cite a representative case, four days ago I had the privilege of officially opening and handing over the Baphuting ba ga Nawa traditional office. Through the use of labour intensive methods and the transfer of skills to local people, the building of that office advanced the objectives of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and the Provincial Poverty Eradication Strategy – in the process creating employment for 33 people.

To further empower our traditional leaders administratively, we shall soon be purchasing vehicles for traditional councils. Together with this House we will have to develop a policy to manage these vehicles in a manner which shall make them contribute to the administrative and economic development of our communities.

With regard to this House specifically we have just bought two executive cars for the Chairperson and the Deputy Chairperson, as fulltime members of the House, to be able to discharge their ever-increasing responsibilities occasioned by the growing importance, and workload, of this House. The cars are currently going through pre-delivery checks and registration.

We are also, Chairperson, addressing serious concerns around the lack of auditing of traditional councils' books. Accordingly I am pleased to announce that the Auditor-General (AG) is giving this matter special attention and has identified a person to work with us in search of a solution. We expect that working hand in hand with this House we shall end up with traditional institutions trained and capacitated to handle their financial management and accounting responsibilities in line with good corporate governance.

Related to this is our equipping of our traditional councils with financial controls and systems to manage their own funds. This is intended to ensure compliance with the law, but it will also help reduce tensions that are lately emerging in some communities around funds and their management.

Another of our enhancements of the work of our traditional leaders relates to the conditions of service of employees of the traditional councils. In this regard, while we have tried to assist by providing funds to improve the salaries of the employees, we need to do more. Accordingly we will soon be commissioning a study to determine how best to improve their working conditions – one option being to absorb them into the public service workforce.

Alignment between national plans for traditional leaders and the North West (NW) province's plans

Chairperson, in empowering our traditional leaders and their institutions, we are in synch with national government. At our level we, too, are committed to strengthening the partnership between government and the institution of traditional leadership to focus on rural development and fighting poverty.

In his address at the opening of the second session of the third term of the National House of Traditional Leaders on 20 February 2009, the President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Kgalema Motlanthe, announced the establishment of the Department of Traditional Leadership, effective 1 April 2009. The President said this was to ensure that matters of traditional leadership are dealt with at the highest level of management within government.

At our level chairperson, we have taken a decision to upgrade our traditional leadership directorate into a chief directorate. The chief directorate will consist of three directorates, the first focusing on the Houses of Traditional Leadership; the second on administrative support; and the third being an anthropological section. This structural realignment is intended to ensure highly focused support to Dikgosi and a quick response system to their needs. We are in the process of implementing this decision and the Director-General (DG) will soon be briefing the House on the process.

The President also alluded to the imminent skills development and capacity building for the institution of traditional leadership. We have, on our part, and in line with the announcement we made to this House last year, already taken 30 traditional leaders through the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETA) training modules on Local Economic Development (LED) and Community Development. This was part of our province's piloting of the Comprehensive National Program of Support for Dikgosi, and this House played a key role in that regard.

With regard to co-operation between municipalities and traditional councils, the President referred to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the National House of Traditional Leaders and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).

Pursuant to such co-operation in our province a few months ago our own Dikgosi signed an agreement with SALGA NW. The agreement envisages stronger working relations and open lines of communication between organised local government and institutions of traditional leadership, and between Dikgosi and municipal councillors. This can only be good for development and constructive for our communities.

This development is particularly appreciated in a context where, we must admit, the participation of traditional leaders in municipal activities still seems to be a challenge. The problem, we are aware, stems from inconsistent policies adopted by municipalities with regards to benefits extended to traditional leaders taking part in the municipalities in terms of section 81 of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998. The implementation of the MoU promises scope for the resolution of this and any other areas of misunderstanding between our municipalities and traditional leaders.

Another area of alignment between us, as a province, and national government relates to traditional leadership and governance legislation to enhance the effective functioning of the institution of traditional leadership.

In our province chairperson, we have received some concerns and inputs on the legislative framework governing this institution, including the synchronisation of this House with other Houses. We have acted on these inputs. Part of our action entails, as an interim measure, the suspension of some of the clauses in our legislation pending the finalisation of all relevant legislative amendments.

Indeed chairperson, we are fully at one with national government on all aspects pertaining to traditional leadership and traditional communities.

Rural development programme and traditional and cultural issues

Accordingly, being a province with a strong rural base, we shall be playing a critical role, hand in hand with our traditional leaders, on the comprehensive rural development programme announced by the President. Being more vulnerable than most, our rural communities constitute a key target group for our socio-economic development initiatives and interventions in the second half of the second decade of our freedom and democracy. Living in the rural areas of our province should mean no second class status for any of our people.

Also continuing will be our engagement with this House on issues raised by the National House of Traditional Leaders with central government. These include land matters and the regulation of cultural practices within traditional communities. Let this House be assured of our recognition of the centrality of traditional leaders in the resolution of these, and other, matters with implications for traditional communities, as indeed government's participation in last year's National Heritage Council (NHC) conference on traditional African practices and human rights attests.

We shall also continue working with our traditional leaders in the creation of an ubuntu/botho-based value system – including unity, social cohesion, moral regeneration, mutual respect, humility, and a firm stance against crime and corruption – within our communities. Our traditional leaders represent the continuation of our traditional culture of commitment to the common good and values that build.

We do, of course, recognise, as King Arthur says in Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Morte D'Arthur", that:

The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

Indeed, change is a reality we cannot escape, but there are enduring customs, values and traditions – upon which nations are built – that we cannot compromise on, and that our traditional leaders continue to be custodians of.

Some of those values are care and concern for the less fortunate – necessitating, then, the protection and the defence of victims of racism and xenophobia, and support for those afflicted by diseases such as Tuberculosis (TB), HIV and AIDS.

One of our interventions chairperson, to ensure the continued capacity of our traditional leaders to safeguard our core values, customs, culture and traditions, involves our handling of conflicts and instability within the very institution of traditional leadership in our province. In the recent past we have therefore had to take extraordinary measures to ensure some stability and good governance in some of our traditional communities. In this regard we appointed administrators in Bopong ba Mogale and Bakwena ba Mogopa, and we will be appointing a team to investigate the conflict in Bodibe.

Our invocation chairperson, of the role of traditional leaders in the maintenance of our cultural tradition, and our handling of traditional leadership conflicts with the involvement of the House, are informed by the White Paper on Traditional Leadership and Governance, which recognises the fact that traditional leaders still have a major role to play with regard to development, custodianship and implementation of customary norms and practices of traditional communities.

As Phillipe Sawadogo said in 1995 when he was Secretary-General of the Pan-African film festival, Fespacol:

Culture is both the beginning and the end of development. We must see it as part of our identity. It is the common place where all our people can come together and discuss things. We often think of economics and politics, but we must think of culture as equally important.

Conflict resolution in the context of traditional leadership

The White Paper, Chairperson, also acknowledges the fact that traditional leaders also have a role to play in dispute resolution.

Our interventions in the resolution of traditional leadership disputes also represent our practical commitment, as government, to good and clean governance, and to ensuring that no conflict, particularly within royal families, affects community development. We know that this is a commitment we share with you, and so it remains critical for the House of Traditional Leaders to continue playing a central role in the resolution of any traditional leadership disputes.

As we all intervene towards the resolution of those disputes, we would assist the protagonists if we reminded them of the instructive words of Dan Oestreich, that:

Leadership is not a position or formal power. It is our personal impact on others and our contribution to creating a better world. There are a million contexts for effective leadership – from corporate guidance to raising a child, from political change to writing a poem. What we do in each moment co-creates the kind of world in which we live. Each of us has the obligation to look, to see what can be done to make our shared life a little richer, stronger, and closer to the dream of what we can be – separately, and as one community – and then to act. And that act, first and foremost, is the act of leading ourselves.

It is that conceptualisation of selfless leadership which promises to make our shared and collective vision a reality – the vision of a society characterised by the equal development of all our people, rural and urban. I need not reemphasise the centrality of our noble institution of traditional leadership in that regard.

The development agenda for the next five years

Through that leadership, and our own, we look forward to the next five years of our nation's governance and development. Together let us pursue the achievement of our vision as encapsulated in the following:

* Successful industrial policies which will lead to the creation of decent and sustainable jobs for sustainable livelihoods.

* The renewal of our schooling and education systems for the benefit of our children, particularly those in rural areas and previously disadvantaged areas.

* Aggressive prevention campaigns and increased access to antiretrovirals (ARV) to drastically reduce the rate of HIV infections and AIDS. This must go together with all efforts to upgrade and improve the health services at our public hospitals and clinics.

* The continued empowerment of rural communities through, among others, improved rural farming, and thus food security.

* Rooting out corruption and fighting crime in every sphere of our lives, ensuring that we leave no room for criminality.

From the traditional leadership perspective, let us continue strengthening the developmental relationship obtaining between the three spheres of government and the institution of traditional leadership. It is only in the context of co-operative governance and sound intergovernmental relationships that we can all share the obligation, and the compliments, of service and leadership to our people.

Conclusion

In closing, Chairperson, may I reiterate my gratitude for the invitation to address this noble House of our province's royalty. May I also echo a sentiment I earlier expressed, namely that let there be co-operation between us and our traditional leaders on the FIFA Confederations Cup – which is only three months away – and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Together let us ensure, in consultation with our soccer authorities, that these international spectacles benefit not only our urban but also our rural and traditional communities. Our position chairperson is that working together we can do more.

And may those benefits signify the greater and longer term benefits that our people shall enjoy under our inspired leadership both as elected and as traditional representatives – mindful, in the words of a Yoruba proverb, that "If we stand tall it is because we stand on the backs of those who came before us."

Pula! Pula! I thank you all.

Issued by: North West Provincial Government
17 March 2009