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Date
: 09/05/2003
Source: The Presidency
Title: J Zuma: Opening of Zalu Hill MPCC and royal chambers
ADDRESS BY THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA, JG
ZUMA, ON THE OCCASION OF THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE ZALU HILL MPCC
AND ROYAL CHAMBERS, Qaukeni Great Place, Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape,
9 May 2003
His Majesty, King Sigcau;
The Premier of the Eastern Cape, Rev Stofile;
The Minister of Public Works, Stella Sigcau;
Ministers and MECs present;
The Mayor of OR Tambo District Municipality, Cllr Zoleka
Capa;
Traditional Leaders present;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen:
We meet here today, just four days after the falling of one of the
giants of our struggle, Cde Walter Sisulu.
Xhamela dedicated his entire life to the struggle against
apartheid, to the cause for a just society, and of course a society
where all South Africans were free and had access to the basic
necessities in life.
I am sure you all join me in wishing the family strength during
this difficult period.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be here today to celebrate
development by officially opening the new chambers for His Majesty
the King today, and to open the Zalu Multipurpose Community Centre,
and these are facilities that are intended to improve the lives of
our people.
These two facilities are yet another example of our determination
to ensure the development of rural areas, and to extend services to
these areas.
We believe that the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development
Programme should include, among other things, projects that restore
the dignity of our traditional leaders.
As government we fully recognise the role of traditional leadership
as custodians of moral, value, cultural and social systems of many
people in South Africa.
The system of apartheid undermined the existence of our traditional
systems of governance, and in places where they recognised them it
was mainly on the basis of extending their machinery, control and
bureaucracy.
The position that we took as the democratic government was that the
institution of traditional leadership occupies an important place
in African life and, historically, in the body politic of South
Africa. It has played an important role throughout the struggles of
the African people in our country.
It also embodies the preservation of culture, traditions, customs
and values of the African people while also representing the early
forms of societal organisation and governance.
Among the many challenges that we have been faced with as
government, has been the need to finalise the role and place of the
institution of traditional leadership in a democratic South
Africa.
This included the challenge of dealing with poverty and
underdevelopment as a result of the inhumane system of
apartheid.
Linked to this has been the responsibility we have of restoring the
dignity of all South Africans in general and Africans in
particular, which was eroded by the colonial system through
undermining our traditional leaders. Many of our people in rural
areas were deprived of access to information, basic services and
lacked basic infrastructure. In this way we were degraded in to
colonial subjects.
The government, through the national Department of Public Works,
will therefore continue to create and roll out essential
infrastructure that incorporate the construction of modern royal
chambers at the Great Places of Kings in the country.
We are indeed very pleased that during the construction of the R5
million royal chambers at Qaukeni Great Place, more than 1 500 job
opportunities were created of which 62% went to women. Also, of
these 1500 jobs 61% went to the youth. A total of 309 local people
were trained on technical and institutional skills.
This is a good investment on training and yet another contribution
to building a better life for our people. To date, seven Great
Places have been identified for funding by government of which
three are complete; two are under construction and two in a
planning stage.
Our task of bringing a better life to all our people has been a
cornerstone of all our programmes for the past nine years of
democracy and freedom. To this end, our resolve to transform our
society and all its institutions to reflect the new values as
embodied in our constitution has been aimed at realizing this
vision of a better life for all our people.
To ensure that the transformation of this traditional institution
of leadership takes place in an open and transparent manner,
government developed the White Paper on Traditional Leadership and
Governance sometime last year.
A call was made for comments on this White Paper, to which I
believe most traditional leaders and many of our people
responded.
Your Majesty, we also believe that this transformation of the
institution of traditional leadership must ensure that the
institution mobilises rural people to participate in rural local
governance.
They should participate in reconstruction and development, as well
as local economic development initiatives, and explore the human
potential of people living in rural areas.
The White Paper has identified, amongst others, a role of promoting
socio-economic development, good governance and service delivery
for the institution of traditional leadership, and this should
ensure that our people do benefit from the fruits of democracy and
freedom.
I wish to reiterate that government sees traditional leaders as
partners in efforts of uplifting the conditions that our people in
rural areas live in. Our drive to promote the participation of all
South Africans in our efforts to change their lives, especially in
rural areas will be more successful if this partnership worked
accordingly.
I must also add, Your Majesty, that given the crucial role we see
for our traditional leaders, it is vital that they remain focused
and united, and set an example to their subjects as well as the
whole country.
Our traditional leaders can greatly assist us in providing sound
moral leadership and unity and respect amongst each other. This
will certainly go a long way towards promoting these values amongst
all of us.
Your Majesty, earlier this morning we had the pleasure to
officially open the Zalu Hill Multi-purpose Community Centre, which
will provide a range of services from various government
departments for the people of this area.
Once complete, this one-stop shop for essential government services
will house among others, the offices of the Departments of Home
Affairs, Social Development, Labour, Government Communications, and
post offices. This will bring to six, the number of MPCC facilities
established in the Eastern Cape.
This MPCC will not only offer people access to government services,
but will also expose people to information communication
technologies that they can utilise to improve their lives.
Your Majesty, let me use this opportunity to thank all our
traditional leaders who continue to work very hard with government
as well as our communities to accelerate the process of
change.
Government values this kind of cooperation and partnership, as we
are now able to respond to the needs of our people rapidly and
faster.
Government will continue to pursue this objective vigorously.
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