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Date : 30/10/2003
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Title: Mahlangu: Indaba on service delivery on farms


KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY THE PREMIER OF MPUMALANGA, NJ MAHLANGU, AT THE INDABA ON SERVICE DELIVERY ON FARMS, Middelburg Council Chambers, Thursday, 30 October 2003

Programme Director
Local Government MEC, the Honourable Mohammed Bhabha
Housing MEC, the Honourable Mabhuza Ginindza
Distinguished members of the farming community
Honourable members and representatives of local government
Distinguished delegates and guests
Ladies and gentlemen

I feel extremely honoured to be part of this historic gathering where patriots meet to discuss the challenges facing all of us, as we advance painstakingly in creating a better life for all. We stand here, all of us, conscious of the fact that we can proudly declare that in the short nine years we have made great strides in entrenching and nurturing our democracy.

As a diverse people bound by a common destiny, we owe our very being to great trailblazers like Ushaka ka Senzangakhona and Sekhukhune, Piet Retief and Bart Nel, Mahatma Ghandi and Naicker, Adam Kok and Ashley Kriel and all those brave sons and daughters of this country who laid down their lives so you and me can be free.

It is that indomitable spirit that spurred them on, which today guides us as we recommit ourselves to confront the challenges of poverty and underdevelopment, and to ensure a better life for all through a comprehensive people-centred and people-driven programme of social transformation.

Recently we met in Stellenbosch as members of the ruling party. It was at this conference in December that we looked at what we have achieved and what we need to do in order to ensure that we banish poverty and landlessness. Landlessness is a growing problem aggravated by the challenges of poverty and unemployment.

You will remember that shortly after the first democratic elections the Mpumalanga Provincial Government adopted a Provincial Growth and Development Strategy. The strategy's central objective is the alleviation of poverty and general improvement in living standards of the people.

Poverty alleviation, in essence, means ensuring that everyone - including the most vulnerable in society - has access to basic needs and services that are essential for their survival and well being.

These basic services include shelter, education, health, transport, and land and food security. In order to ensure that there is a better life for all our people, we had to identify those things that we had to do in order to turn things around. These included good governance, human resource development, economic growth and social development.

We also had to work hard in ensuring that our people had access to, among other things, education, safe water, basic sanitation and land. Precisely because of our apartheid past, the majority of our people had no access to the things I mentioned above. During apartheid days all spheres of government pretended like there were no farm workers and tenants. To them that was a problem of the farmers. They in turn, in most cases I must stress, made absolutely no effort to uplift or develop farm workers.

We cannot say we are making progress as a people and a nation, unless all the people of our country have shelters over their heads, adequate food to feed themselves and their families, health care, and access to clean water and electricity. We cannot say we are moving forward faster towards the attainment of complete liberation from the legacy of the past, unless all of us live without fear in our houses and walk freely through the streets and villages of our land.

We cannot move forward faster to the goal of a better life for all unless our people receive the necessary education and training that enable them to reach their full potential and are themselves the African pioneers leading all of us in the African century.

Recently government went on its Imbizos to listen to and respond to what the people say. There are reports of farm workers sharing water sources with animals. Farm owners have always argued that they do not have enough resources to provide clean water to farm workers. They also argue that farm workers sometime leave taps running without taking responsibility for wastage.

We were also told that when a farm is sold farm tenants are at times evicted because, as farmers argue, they do not form part of the stock the farmer bought. They prefer their own labour. This often results in huge informal settlements almost on the doorstep of the farms where that were evicted. This puts a strain on municipalities because it is unplanned.

Today we have to tackle these and other issues - sensitive issues that may cause great discomfort to some of us. But I believe that at the end of our sessions we will depart with greater determination to accelerate service delivery in this sector.

I know that we will tackle the issue of challenges and possibilities in service delivery on farms as well as issues like agri-villages, tenure rights and partnership between farmers and municipalities to complement each other in the delivery of service in the farms.

You all agree with me that the agricultural sector has a very crucial role to play in development both as a vehicle for food production through labour-intensive projects, which will then create employment for many of our people especially the vulnerable groups in rural areas - particularly women, young children the elderly and the disabled. Over the next few hours you are going to engage in debates that are aimed at taking the issue of service delivery forward. But then, even more importantly than winning an argument, implementing the right policies as speedily as possible is more important.

We should move away from a situation where we as farmers say we will not allow development on our farms because doing so will give the African National Congress (ANC) more credibility than it deserves. Our main concern should be the people. Not the Freedom Front and not the ANC or the Democratic Alliance. In your debates you will argue. You will argue and disagree. It is necessary.

Let me say that I will be glad if you argue and disagree because as democrats you care and you care deeply. But you must disagree and argue without calling each other liars and thieves, without despoiling our best traditions. You must not spoil our best traditions in any naked struggles for power. You must write a platform that neither equivocates, contradicts, nor evades.

I expect you to restate our record, our principles, and our purposes in language that none can mistake, and with a firm confidence in justice, freedom, and peace.

Let us face it. Let us talk sense to the people. Let us tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pains.

The people are wiser than we think. And Mpumalanga is the people's province. Not the employers' province, not the farmer's province. It is the people's province.

That, I think, is our ancient mission. Where we have deserted it we have failed. With your help there will be no desertion now. Millions of farm workers and tenants look to us for compassion, for understanding, and for honest purpose. Thus we will serve our great tradition greatly.

Allow me to take this opportunity to wish you well in your deliberations.

I thank you.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Mpumalanga Provincial Government
30 October 2003

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