FREE DAILY EMAIL

Date : 29/09/2003
Source: The Presidency
Title: J Zuma: International Scientific Council for Tsetse & Trypanosomosis Research Control


OPENING ADDRESS BY DEPUTY PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA TO THE CONFERENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL FOR TSETSE AND TRYPANOSOMOSIS RESEARCH CONTROL, Pretoria, 29 September 2003

The Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs,
Representatives of the African Union,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to welcome all of you to this conference, especially our visitors from outside South Africa, including those from within the continent.

I hope you received a warm South African welcome when you arrived and that you have settled in well and are ready to start the business of the week.

It may come as a surprise to many delegates to hear that this is not the first ISCTRC meeting to be held in South Africa. A meeting was held in Pretoria in 1954, attended by less than 30 delegates, a far cry from today's meeting. The political landscape has changed completely in the continent since then, as Africa was still colonised. In that conference, African countries are likely to have been represented by the colonial masters and the views of the colonised were never expressed.

South Africa has also changed radically since then, given the elimination of apartheid and ushering in of democracy in 1994.

Therefore, even our approach towards solving the tsetse fly problem, or any other challenge as a country is totally different from what it was in 1954! Our programmes and actions are now informed by the overarching continental goal of working to achieve sustainable development and improving the quality of life of all within the continent.

Ladies and gentlemen, we must congratulate the Organisation for African Unity, and now the African Union, for keeping this Council and campaign running over such a long period of time.

The fact that the Council celebrated its 50th anniversary four years ago in Mombassa demonstrates the importance attached to the problem being dealt with.

From very humble beginnings with very few delegates to today's meeting with many more delegates really demonstrates how the campaign has grown, and how the knowledge base has expanded on tsetse flies and the cattle disease that they transport from infected to non-infected animals.

Over the years the Council has played a leading role in the collaboration between researchers and field officers.

The publication of the proceedings has led to the dissemination of the latest scientific findings in this field to all role-players.

However, despite the research and the expanded knowledge, the problem posed by tsetse flies persists, and continues to cause great concern given that within Africa, the problem affects mainly the poor rural farmer who is already suffering from many resource constraints.

The sickness and subsequent death of cattle lead to lost production and lost income, and affects poverty alleviation efforts. That is why we need to intensify research and work in this field in order to make progress in the campaign. In South Africa the problem exists in the northern KwaZulu-Natal area, although at a much lower scale than most parts of the continent.

Valuable research has been conducted in the northern KwaZulu-Natal region and we believe we have reached a stage where a long-term disease control or tsetse fly eradication campaign can be planned.

Ladies and gentlemen, Africa's battle against this cattle disease is not in isolation from the overall political and economic programme of the continent. Among the goals of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), as you would be aware, is the promotion of agriculture to ensure sustainable development and food security.

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) seeks to improve agricultural performance in Africa as agriculture plays a key role in poverty eradication and restoration of human dignity.

As clearly outlined in the CAADP document, agriculture provides 60% of all employment and constitutes the backbone of most African economies and accounts for about 40% of the continent's hard currency earnings. The importance of agriculture can therefore never be underestimated.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals provide a clear outline of key development goals to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. These goals are crucial to the NEPAD programme, and Africa's vision for agriculture builds on the United Nations goals and has a similar objective.

As you would be aware, the vision for agriculture is that the continent should by 2015 attain food security and improve the productivity of agriculture to attain an average annual growth rate of 6%.

This includes paying specific attention to small farmers, especially women who are Africa's most active users of the land in rural areas.

Other key objectives include developing dynamic agricultural relations between nations and regions as well as for Africa to become a strategic player in agricultural science and technology.

The conference is therefore in line with the achievement of these goals, as the eradication of disease affecting livestock is a key contributor to meeting these aims.

Ladies and gentlemen, the total eradication of the tsetse fly population in Africa will obviously take longer than we would all want - perhaps years or even decades. The difficulty of getting rid of tsetse flies inspired creative people in this country to call our highly accomplished under-12 soccer team Tsetse Flies! And indeed their prowess on the soccer field has made it difficult for other teams to beat them in the world. They returned from a world tour recently having flattened all opposition on their way.

This is not meant to dampen your spirits ladies and gentlemen. While our junior soccer team is invincible, the real tsetse flies can be beaten. It is important to continue to intensify the programmes and cover larger and more areas of the continent, to make an impact.

It is also critical to have a co-ordinated approach within the continent. The Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomosis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) initiative, which was approved by African heads of State in Lome in 2000, represented a new co-operative approach.

As in many other fields such as fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria, rabies and many other diseases, the effective way to make a large impact is to have regional or sub-regional programmes so that expertise, manpower and financial resources can be shared between countries in a combined attack on the common disease problem.

The PATTEC campaign should therefore continue to guide our work in this regard.

I wish you a successful week of deliberations and hope all delegates will take back to their countries, renewed vigour and enthusiasm for the ideals of achieving sustainable agricultural development in the continent.

I would therefore like to formally declare the 28th meeting of the ISCTRC formally open.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
29 September 2003

SPONSORED BY

Advanced