Date: 19/12/2003
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Title: Mahlangu: King Nyabela 's commemoration
ADDRESS BY THE PREMIER OF MPUMALANGA, NJ MAHLANGU, ADDRESS AT THE KING NYABELA COMMEMORATION, Erholweni, 19 December 2003
Deputy President Jacob Zuma
His Majesty Ingwenyama Mayitjha III
Your Majesties, the Kings of our people Amakhosi, Magoshi naTihosi
Honourable Ministers
Honourable Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Programme Directors, today we gather at this hallow place to pay homage to one of South Africa's greatest visionaries - indeed one of Africa's greatest statesman, seer and leader.
As we commemorate King Nyabela let us make this solemn pledge that never again shall we allow the country to fall into the hands of the enemy.
Never again shall we allow ourselves to slide into defeat and subjugation. As a people we shall never allow ourselves to be dispossessed and our country and our continent to be plundered.
Nothing short of such a commitment will appease his majesty the Late King Nyabela. Nothing can assure our great heroes like Shaka, Sekhukhune, Ngungunyane, Mzilikazi, Mswati and others that we are indeed a country in the process of reclaiming our history.
It is perhaps fitting that another small step in reclaiming our history is taken not far from the plains where our forefathers fought pitched battles in defence of encroaching colonialism and land theft. Indeed it was here that those who came before us said "no!" to colonialism.
Despite been outgunned they laid down their lives so you and me could be free. They laid down their lives in defence of their dignity, their land and their freedom.
Today we meet again in these caves as proud descendants of those valiant fighters - UNYABELA, UMABHOKO, USILAMBA, UMAGODONGO - in a different setting, in a different era, to plan for peace and not war; to promote unity and not division; to forge a common nationhood and not exclusive privilege.
We also meet to assert the humanity of persons one to the other; to seek unity and reconciliation; to set shoulders to the wheel in building a better life for all.
Before 1994 we were a country divided as those who thought they would rule over us forever sought to exploit our differences and using these to keep us apart and at war with each other. We have emerged from a past signified by disunity. We are now prepared to stand together to work for a better life for all.
Indeed, the society we seek to replace was, to a very significant degree, built on the law of the jungle of the survival of the fittest. Accordingly, the weakest that were denied access to power became the landless, the unemployed, the uneducated, the surplus people deported to the so-called homelands, the victims of abject poverty.
Among these are those in our cities and towns who have lost all hope and all self-worth, who have slid into a twilight world of drug and alcohol abuse, the continuous sexual and physical abuse of women and children.
Ladies and gentlemen, these are some of the challenges facing all of us. These are enormous challenges we face to succeed in creating the caring society we all yearn for.
But this is not a task that can be carried out by the government alone. The challenge of the reconstruction and development of our society into one, which guarantees human dignity, faces the entirety of our people.
It is a national task that calls for the mobilisation of the whole nation into united people's action, into a partnership with government for progressive change and a better life for all, for a common effort to build a winning nation.
As the Mpumalanga government we commit to work in a close partnership with all our people, inspired by the call KHOMANANI! -to ensure that we draw on the energy and genius of the nation to give birth to something that will surely be new, good and beautiful.
In order to achieve that society where none of our people will go to bed hungry, we need to be driven by the same spirit, the same sense of patriotic duty that drove Mabhoko, Nyabela, Shaka, Moshoeshoe, Hintsa, Makana, Nghunghunyana, Mswati - all our great heroes - to take up arms in defence of their dignity as humans.
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of these brave heroes. The trumpet summons us again to join the struggle against our common enemies: poverty, under-development, disease and want.
The torch has been passed to a new generation of South Africans. Born into the struggle for human dignity and the eradication of poverty.
My special pledge today - yes the pledge of the government I lead and that of the organisation that groomed me - we shall not fail our people. We will indeed convert our good words into good deeds to ensure that our people cast off the chains of poverty.
As we honour King Nyabela, let us practise and celebrate; advance and develop; protect and preserve our rich heritage. If not for our sake, let us do it for the sake of our children and their children after them.
Programme Directors, let me take this opportunity to thank all our people for having worked in partnership with us in ensuring that in nine short years we have gone a long way in improving the lives of our people.
Indeed we can say we achieved that better life through effective implementation of government programmes and the delivery of services that respond to the needs and expectations of our people.
But it will not be possible for us to measure how far we have travelled down the road of a better life for all without looking back at what we inherited more than nine years ago.
When we took over the majority of the people in Mpumalanga were living in rural areas with no source of income. Many communities had no basic facilities such as water reticulation, bulk water supply, electricity, proper sanitation, roads and streets, recreational facilities and housing.
There was an inequitable allocation of social grants founded on a discriminatory practice based on gender and race.
In the health sector there was a lack of adequate health facilities, health personnel and basic health services such as primary, preventive and curative health facilities.
The majority of schools were overcrowded, under-resourced and had no proper buildings. This skimping and skewed distribution of resources was also felt on the farms.
Apart from being exploited, farm workers had no access to basic facilities such as clean water, schools, health institutions, electricity and recreational facilities.
We also inherited an economy that relied heavily on the natural environment with very little beneficiation of the natural resources that the province is endowed with.
Since 1994 our major challenge was to eradicate poverty and thus improve the lives of all our people. One way to do this was to transform the fragmented and discriminatory social security system.
Through careful planning the number of social grant beneficiaries has grown rapidly to 395 722. These include old age benefits, war veterans' payouts, disability, care dependency and child support grants.
Child protection is a key priority of the province. Thousands of children are reached annually through awareness campaigns on children's rights and parental responsibilities.
Great strides have been made in the provision of health services to the people of Mpumalanga, specifically taking health care facilities to the rural and poor areas of the province.
Secondary and specialised health services were non-existent in 1994, but with the inter-government agreement between South Africa and Cuba, as well as the joint contracts between Mpumalanga and the University of Pretoria and Medunsa, the province has developed basic capacity to provide this essential service.
The introduction of community service doctors and other health professionals in our primary health care facilities and district hospitals has improved the accessibility and quality of health care.
There are 239 fixed primary health care facilities and 80 mobile clinics. Since 1994, 19 new clinics have been built and 7 clinics are in the process of construction.
There are now 22 district hospitals and six were declared baby friendly by the World Health Organisation and Unicef. They are Themba, Barberton, Bethal, Witbank, Delmas and Shongwe hospitals.
The Primary School Feeding Programme, which started in 1995 when 350 000 learners were fed, has grown and now provides for 1325 needy schools comprising 460 000 primary school learners.
The programme also provides work to a number of people. More than 2 200 unemployed women receive an honorarium per feeding day.
There are more children receiving quality education at well-equipped schools than there were 10 years ago. We have enhanced the provision of learner support materials, infrastructure, scholar transport, scholar feeding and the general quality of teaching and learning.
More than 2 million people now receive clean water. Surely we are a government that cares. And that is how it should be. We do what you ask us to do.
In response to the serious drought currently affecting many parts of the country, Government recently announced the distribution of emergency assistance to municipalities to maintain domestic water supplies.
The Ministers of Provincial and Local Government and Water Affairs and Forestry announced that R109,055 million would immediately be distributed to 36 municipalities in 8 provinces.
Where possible, the funds would be used to provide emergency water sources, which can later be used as permanent sources of supply. Some funds will also be used to cart water by tanker in severely affected communities where local sources are not adequate.
Our province is one of the worst affected provinces. Mpumalanga will receive R15.989. We will spend the bulk of the money in the KwaMhlanga-Tembisile-Dr JS Moroka areas as well as in the Nkomazi areas.
In fact we all know that the areas that are most affected are those in the former homelands of KaNgwane and KwaNdebele.
Programme Directors, I mentioned earlier that we could look back at the past nine years as a period of great achievements. We continue to house our people in decent houses they can call their own. A total of 113 771 units were built and transferred since 1994 to date.
More than 345 553 new households have been provided with electricity. We have been able to do these and more because we are in constant touch with the people.
Since 1999 the Mpumalanga Executive Council has been holding a fortnightly Outreach Programme in different regions of the Province.
The Executive Council Outreach Programmes and Imbizos were most enlightening and educative with a total of 64 sessions of the Outreach Programme being held and a total of 512 communities visited.
Being a largely rural province, we have made great strides in improving the relationship between government and traditional leaders in this province.
As a province we have brought services closer to the people by utilising traditional authorities offices for government functions such as the processing of applications for old age, disability and child support grants. We have also provided transport for the traditional leaders.
The Department of Home Affairs has trained all the provincial officials we have deployed in the offices of the traditional leaders. They process applications for identity documents as well as birth and death registrations.
Chairperson, the youth in our province have not been idle. They are involved in a number of community-based projects, which include the Rehabilitation of dilapidated houses in Nsikazi and Nkomazi and Elukwatini, Mooiplaas and Nhlazatshe.
They are also involved in five poverty alleviation projects in Mbuzini, Leroro, Moutse, Moretele and Nhlazatshe.
Our youth also participate in the Premier's Special Projects valued at R131,978-million. To date up to 12 youth companies have successfully tendered and completed work allocated to them.
When we realised the lack of skills in the fields such as mathematics, science, technology and engineering, we initiated the establishment of the Premier's bursary fund to deal with this matter.
The bursary fund was established to cater for the pupils of Mpumalanga who have excelled and showed a strong potential in the fields of mathematics, science and technology.
The bursary is awarded on merit and the recipients will be carried through until they complete their studies. They will have to utilise their knowledge for a particular period in the province.
In order to fight poverty the province initiated a number of poverty alleviation programmes.
One of the first poverty alleviation initiatives embarked on was to address rural poverty among women with children under five years of age.
Part of the five poverty relief programme objectives of the Mpumalanga Provincial Government, is the development of household food security through the establishment of food production clusters in communities, with a particular focus on households affected by HIV/AIDS.
We have also gone a long way in improving the economy of the province and in the process created much-needed jobs.
For instance, we established petro-chemical projects as well as wood and forestry projects, mining projects, agro-processing and other projects valued at more than R2-billion providing employment to more than 2 000 people.
That, in brief is our report. But we acknowledge that more needs to be done in order to ensure that we create a better life for all our people. We will continue on this noble road.
Finally, as we come to the end of another glorious year, we do so with the full knowledge that our people will make the right choices when called upon to vote.
They will do because they realise that as we enter the last few months of our first decade of democracy, we have been able - in a most practical manner - to improve their lives. There is no denying that we have made tremendous strides with regard to such matters as housing, schools, clinics and other aspects of social development.
In 2004 we must reinforce the processes of acting together as people of Mpumalanga province to make sure that we build the kind of a province and a country that we would be proud to call home.
We wish you all a merry Christmas and a fulfilling New Year.
I thank you
Issued by the Mpumalanga Provincial Government, 19 December 2003
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Title: Mahlangu: King Nyabela 's commemoration
ADDRESS BY THE PREMIER OF MPUMALANGA, NJ MAHLANGU, ADDRESS AT THE KING NYABELA COMMEMORATION, Erholweni, 19 December 2003
Deputy President Jacob Zuma
His Majesty Ingwenyama Mayitjha III
Your Majesties, the Kings of our people Amakhosi, Magoshi naTihosi
Honourable Ministers
Honourable Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Programme Directors, today we gather at this hallow place to pay homage to one of South Africa's greatest visionaries - indeed one of Africa's greatest statesman, seer and leader.
As we commemorate King Nyabela let us make this solemn pledge that never again shall we allow the country to fall into the hands of the enemy.
Never again shall we allow ourselves to slide into defeat and subjugation. As a people we shall never allow ourselves to be dispossessed and our country and our continent to be plundered.
Nothing short of such a commitment will appease his majesty the Late King Nyabela. Nothing can assure our great heroes like Shaka, Sekhukhune, Ngungunyane, Mzilikazi, Mswati and others that we are indeed a country in the process of reclaiming our history.
It is perhaps fitting that another small step in reclaiming our history is taken not far from the plains where our forefathers fought pitched battles in defence of encroaching colonialism and land theft. Indeed it was here that those who came before us said "no!" to colonialism.
Despite been outgunned they laid down their lives so you and me could be free. They laid down their lives in defence of their dignity, their land and their freedom.
Today we meet again in these caves as proud descendants of those valiant fighters - UNYABELA, UMABHOKO, USILAMBA, UMAGODONGO - in a different setting, in a different era, to plan for peace and not war; to promote unity and not division; to forge a common nationhood and not exclusive privilege.
We also meet to assert the humanity of persons one to the other; to seek unity and reconciliation; to set shoulders to the wheel in building a better life for all.
Before 1994 we were a country divided as those who thought they would rule over us forever sought to exploit our differences and using these to keep us apart and at war with each other. We have emerged from a past signified by disunity. We are now prepared to stand together to work for a better life for all.
Indeed, the society we seek to replace was, to a very significant degree, built on the law of the jungle of the survival of the fittest. Accordingly, the weakest that were denied access to power became the landless, the unemployed, the uneducated, the surplus people deported to the so-called homelands, the victims of abject poverty.
Among these are those in our cities and towns who have lost all hope and all self-worth, who have slid into a twilight world of drug and alcohol abuse, the continuous sexual and physical abuse of women and children.
Ladies and gentlemen, these are some of the challenges facing all of us. These are enormous challenges we face to succeed in creating the caring society we all yearn for.
But this is not a task that can be carried out by the government alone. The challenge of the reconstruction and development of our society into one, which guarantees human dignity, faces the entirety of our people.
It is a national task that calls for the mobilisation of the whole nation into united people's action, into a partnership with government for progressive change and a better life for all, for a common effort to build a winning nation.
As the Mpumalanga government we commit to work in a close partnership with all our people, inspired by the call KHOMANANI! -to ensure that we draw on the energy and genius of the nation to give birth to something that will surely be new, good and beautiful.
In order to achieve that society where none of our people will go to bed hungry, we need to be driven by the same spirit, the same sense of patriotic duty that drove Mabhoko, Nyabela, Shaka, Moshoeshoe, Hintsa, Makana, Nghunghunyana, Mswati - all our great heroes - to take up arms in defence of their dignity as humans.
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of these brave heroes. The trumpet summons us again to join the struggle against our common enemies: poverty, under-development, disease and want.
The torch has been passed to a new generation of South Africans. Born into the struggle for human dignity and the eradication of poverty.
My special pledge today - yes the pledge of the government I lead and that of the organisation that groomed me - we shall not fail our people. We will indeed convert our good words into good deeds to ensure that our people cast off the chains of poverty.
As we honour King Nyabela, let us practise and celebrate; advance and develop; protect and preserve our rich heritage. If not for our sake, let us do it for the sake of our children and their children after them.
Programme Directors, let me take this opportunity to thank all our people for having worked in partnership with us in ensuring that in nine short years we have gone a long way in improving the lives of our people.
Indeed we can say we achieved that better life through effective implementation of government programmes and the delivery of services that respond to the needs and expectations of our people.
But it will not be possible for us to measure how far we have travelled down the road of a better life for all without looking back at what we inherited more than nine years ago.
When we took over the majority of the people in Mpumalanga were living in rural areas with no source of income. Many communities had no basic facilities such as water reticulation, bulk water supply, electricity, proper sanitation, roads and streets, recreational facilities and housing.
There was an inequitable allocation of social grants founded on a discriminatory practice based on gender and race.
In the health sector there was a lack of adequate health facilities, health personnel and basic health services such as primary, preventive and curative health facilities.
The majority of schools were overcrowded, under-resourced and had no proper buildings. This skimping and skewed distribution of resources was also felt on the farms.
Apart from being exploited, farm workers had no access to basic facilities such as clean water, schools, health institutions, electricity and recreational facilities.
We also inherited an economy that relied heavily on the natural environment with very little beneficiation of the natural resources that the province is endowed with.
Since 1994 our major challenge was to eradicate poverty and thus improve the lives of all our people. One way to do this was to transform the fragmented and discriminatory social security system.
Through careful planning the number of social grant beneficiaries has grown rapidly to 395 722. These include old age benefits, war veterans' payouts, disability, care dependency and child support grants.
Child protection is a key priority of the province. Thousands of children are reached annually through awareness campaigns on children's rights and parental responsibilities.
Great strides have been made in the provision of health services to the people of Mpumalanga, specifically taking health care facilities to the rural and poor areas of the province.
Secondary and specialised health services were non-existent in 1994, but with the inter-government agreement between South Africa and Cuba, as well as the joint contracts between Mpumalanga and the University of Pretoria and Medunsa, the province has developed basic capacity to provide this essential service.
The introduction of community service doctors and other health professionals in our primary health care facilities and district hospitals has improved the accessibility and quality of health care.
There are 239 fixed primary health care facilities and 80 mobile clinics. Since 1994, 19 new clinics have been built and 7 clinics are in the process of construction.
There are now 22 district hospitals and six were declared baby friendly by the World Health Organisation and Unicef. They are Themba, Barberton, Bethal, Witbank, Delmas and Shongwe hospitals.
The Primary School Feeding Programme, which started in 1995 when 350 000 learners were fed, has grown and now provides for 1325 needy schools comprising 460 000 primary school learners.
The programme also provides work to a number of people. More than 2 200 unemployed women receive an honorarium per feeding day.
There are more children receiving quality education at well-equipped schools than there were 10 years ago. We have enhanced the provision of learner support materials, infrastructure, scholar transport, scholar feeding and the general quality of teaching and learning.
More than 2 million people now receive clean water. Surely we are a government that cares. And that is how it should be. We do what you ask us to do.
In response to the serious drought currently affecting many parts of the country, Government recently announced the distribution of emergency assistance to municipalities to maintain domestic water supplies.
The Ministers of Provincial and Local Government and Water Affairs and Forestry announced that R109,055 million would immediately be distributed to 36 municipalities in 8 provinces.
Where possible, the funds would be used to provide emergency water sources, which can later be used as permanent sources of supply. Some funds will also be used to cart water by tanker in severely affected communities where local sources are not adequate.
Our province is one of the worst affected provinces. Mpumalanga will receive R15.989. We will spend the bulk of the money in the KwaMhlanga-Tembisile-Dr JS Moroka areas as well as in the Nkomazi areas.
In fact we all know that the areas that are most affected are those in the former homelands of KaNgwane and KwaNdebele.
Programme Directors, I mentioned earlier that we could look back at the past nine years as a period of great achievements. We continue to house our people in decent houses they can call their own. A total of 113 771 units were built and transferred since 1994 to date.
More than 345 553 new households have been provided with electricity. We have been able to do these and more because we are in constant touch with the people.
Since 1999 the Mpumalanga Executive Council has been holding a fortnightly Outreach Programme in different regions of the Province.
The Executive Council Outreach Programmes and Imbizos were most enlightening and educative with a total of 64 sessions of the Outreach Programme being held and a total of 512 communities visited.
Being a largely rural province, we have made great strides in improving the relationship between government and traditional leaders in this province.
As a province we have brought services closer to the people by utilising traditional authorities offices for government functions such as the processing of applications for old age, disability and child support grants. We have also provided transport for the traditional leaders.
The Department of Home Affairs has trained all the provincial officials we have deployed in the offices of the traditional leaders. They process applications for identity documents as well as birth and death registrations.
Chairperson, the youth in our province have not been idle. They are involved in a number of community-based projects, which include the Rehabilitation of dilapidated houses in Nsikazi and Nkomazi and Elukwatini, Mooiplaas and Nhlazatshe.
They are also involved in five poverty alleviation projects in Mbuzini, Leroro, Moutse, Moretele and Nhlazatshe.
Our youth also participate in the Premier's Special Projects valued at R131,978-million. To date up to 12 youth companies have successfully tendered and completed work allocated to them.
When we realised the lack of skills in the fields such as mathematics, science, technology and engineering, we initiated the establishment of the Premier's bursary fund to deal with this matter.
The bursary fund was established to cater for the pupils of Mpumalanga who have excelled and showed a strong potential in the fields of mathematics, science and technology.
The bursary is awarded on merit and the recipients will be carried through until they complete their studies. They will have to utilise their knowledge for a particular period in the province.
In order to fight poverty the province initiated a number of poverty alleviation programmes.
One of the first poverty alleviation initiatives embarked on was to address rural poverty among women with children under five years of age.
Part of the five poverty relief programme objectives of the Mpumalanga Provincial Government, is the development of household food security through the establishment of food production clusters in communities, with a particular focus on households affected by HIV/AIDS.
We have also gone a long way in improving the economy of the province and in the process created much-needed jobs.
For instance, we established petro-chemical projects as well as wood and forestry projects, mining projects, agro-processing and other projects valued at more than R2-billion providing employment to more than 2 000 people.
That, in brief is our report. But we acknowledge that more needs to be done in order to ensure that we create a better life for all our people. We will continue on this noble road.
Finally, as we come to the end of another glorious year, we do so with the full knowledge that our people will make the right choices when called upon to vote.
They will do because they realise that as we enter the last few months of our first decade of democracy, we have been able - in a most practical manner - to improve their lives. There is no denying that we have made tremendous strides with regard to such matters as housing, schools, clinics and other aspects of social development.
In 2004 we must reinforce the processes of acting together as people of Mpumalanga province to make sure that we build the kind of a province and a country that we would be proud to call home.
We wish you all a merry Christmas and a fulfilling New Year.
I thank you
Issued by the Mpumalanga Provincial Government, 19 December 2003
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