Date: 23/01/2003
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Title: Mahlangu: Launch of district economic forum


MPUMALANGA PREMIER NJ MAHLANGU'S ADDRESS AT THE LAUNCH OF THE GERT NSIBANDE DISTRICT ECONOMIC FORUM, Ermelo, 23 January 2003

Programme Director
Honourable Mayor, Councillor Mdluli
Honourable Mayors and Councillors present
The Business Community
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

I am highly honoured to be present at this gathering here tonight. This is by all means a highly significant event.

This evening we chronicle one more landmark in the consolidation of the economic forum concept across our province. We do so by formally launching the last of the three district economic forums.

This is the Gert Nsibande District Economic Forum (formerly Eastvaal).

The Nkangala and Ehlanzeni Fora/Forums were launched in October and November last year, respectively.

As you know from the few cancellation notices I am told you received, it was my intention to launch all three-district forums last year.

However, we are here tonight, and thank you all for coming.

Let me then start by taking this opportunity not only to greet you all in the year 2003, but to also wish you a very successful, and a very, very productive year.

You will remember that towards the end of last year important milestones in changing the lives of people came to the fore when the ruling party, to which I belong, and have a mandate to carry out its policies, held its 51st National Conference, at which the following decisions, from which I quote, were taken:

"Recognising that these efforts (directed at reconstruction and development) cannot bear fruit if carried out by Government and the movement alone, the conference reiterated the position of the ruling party (ANC) to build strong links with the community organizations, trade unions, religious bodies, business organizations, women and youth structures as well as other organizations to ensure that, in actual practice, South Africans act as their own liberators."

Our economic forums, from local to district and provincial levels are based on this principle I have just quoted.

We believe that the people in the local municipalities should sit down and look at available natural resources, business opportunities and other available developmental opportunities in their respective localities.

Once that is done, the local economic forums should invite representatives from our 8 parastatals who are knowledgeable in the various fields of research; financial assistance, skills development, and many other areas appropriate for enhancing the development we need at the local level.

The district economic forum, like the one we are establishing tonight, should consist of representatives from all our local economic forums in the (7) seven municipal areas, whilst taking our main policy of gender sensitivity into account.

The (3) three district forums will then send their representatives to the provincial economic forum.

The district forum's main function is to look at the economic development of the whole district.

At its first sitting, this forum will have to find out whether there are any opportunities in the mining, manufacturing, tourism, and agricultural sectors in their area.

That way, our parastatals can get first hand information on the thinking of people in Gert Nsibande regarding developmental issues. All the parastatals concerned have my instructions as head of government that they must assist in the economic development of your district.

I would therefore like to give the following torch to our newborn baby, the Gert Nsibande District Economic Forum.

This lodestar is taken from his Excellency the President of the Republic of South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki, in his January 8 statement of 2003.

These are actually challenges and they are:

* We must ensure that our economy achieves high rates of growth that we have had since 1994. This should include investment by both the public and private sectors, and employment creation
* We must improve our performance with regard to growth and development of small and medium business
* We must ensure that we reduce the number of unemployed people by raising the skills level among our masses
* We must significantly increase the scale and impact of the community based public works programme
* We must radically improve the effectiveness and extend the outreach of our micro credit programmes so that the capacity of people at grassroots level can engage in productive economic activities. The cooperative sector of the economy in which people combine their resources and efforts to engage in economic activities should be used as tools
* We must use the state budget to improve the quality of life of especially the poor while contributing to the expansion of the economy
* We must complete our work on the Economic Transformation Charter in order to accelerate our advance with regard to the goal of Economic Empowerment.

The establishment of these district economic forums must be used as a tool by the district councils in facing the challenge of the local government in fulfilling its function of service delivery to our people in the region.

I am inviting all business formations in this district; Sanco, individual businesspersons and political organisations to support this district forum so that it can serve the people of Gert Nsibande with vigour and determination.

While we develop the economy of the district we must fight against corruption at all cost.

The Batho Pele principle needs to be adhered to not only by the members of this district forum, but by all the employees of the district council and its local municipalities.

We must develop our economy in a non-sexist, non-racist and corrupt-free environment.

That is why I commend your district for having arranged for this launch in the very first month of the year.

It marks a good start of the year. Let us aim for a better finish.

The living entity, which we are creating here tonight, which has grown up from below, at the grassroots level, bears a heavy responsibility and has a huge task to fulfil poverty reduction.

Someone once wrote:

"Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it well".

This is my fourth year of running this government and I am still persisting with the economic forum drive.

Well, we are almost there. We are not done yet.

There is one more forum to launch, and that is the provincial economic forum.

As I have been saying in the last three and a half years, my impassioned belief in this concept stems from the fact that in order to win the war against poverty, we must increasingly rely on tapping the capacities and wisdom of local communities and officials.

We should also actively harness the local natural resources, promote the market-oriented production, and enhance the local capacity build up towards self-development.

The forum contributes to an information base that allows policy makers and planners of development programmes, such as your local and district municipalities, to address issues of poverty and vulnerability better. By so doing, it becomes easier to identify entry points to make the planning process and programmes more participatory.

The information gap between decision-makers, policy developers and implementers on the one hand, and local communities on the other, is significantly reduced via the forum mechanism.

Now, it is at this stage that the role of your municipalities in this process comes to the fore in this war against poverty.

It is a well-accepted fact that effective implementation of poverty alleviation policies depends upon the extent of involvement and capacity of local government institutions.

Why is this so, you may ask. One convincing answer is that "Governments that are 'closer to the people' should, in principle, be able to provide services more efficiently and effectively than a remote, centralized authority." And that is exactly why my government and I believe in bringing our government to the people.

This, indeed, is what we have done for the last three and a half years, and we will continue to do so.

This approach becomes even more important when one considers the fact that poverty tends to assume a clear geographic dimension, since the poor are often concentrated in pockets of poverty.

Therefore, the design of poverty alleviation policies must also have a significant spatial component.

Thus, it is for reasons such as these that the focus of the economic forum approach is on geographical areas, your specific, individual municipalities.

The focus ensures that even the poor are involved directly in economic development activities.

We know that poverty means, among other things, depriving and excluding people from the use of resources such as knowledge, information, physical goods, economic goods, housing and health services, to mention a few. But through the economic forum means, opportunities for development are accorded to everyone, and the chances of winning the war against poverty are improved.

Through this process, everyone in his or her respective municipal areas is accorded an opportunity for greater participation and information delivery.

Therefore, the economic forum theory is about information that is needed to change lives for the better. The information flows both ways, from you to us, and in turn, from us back to you.

Collective action will not only promote greater interaction among communities and municipalities, but will also enhance participation of everyone, rich or poor, in development programmes.

Participation of the poor in development programmes will in turn enhance the ability of the poor to influence policy because they will then have a voice that counts in public.

The fora/forums therefore assist in, among other things:

* The identification of assets and opportunities in your municipalities
* The identification of constraints and weakness in your municipalities.

It is what strategic planners call a SWOT analysis, whereby you identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as an individual municipality.

Then at a district level, you repeat the same exercise, but this time as a district.

With business policies and opportunities evolving at the local level where many of the economic problems occur anyway, it becomes the natural place for finding the solutions. And, more importantly, any solutions found will, by their very nature, be unique to each different municipality or environment.

That is why we, as government, cannot come to each municipality and offer a blanket solution.

All we can do, as we have done, is offer you what resources we have, via our provincial parastatals and other arms of government.

It then becomes the choice of each municipality, guided by your "SWOT" analysis, as to which of these services you need.

* If, for example, your needs are in training, the provincial government meets you halfway by bringing you the Mpumalanga Regional Training Trust
* If your needs or constraints are of a financial nature regarding the establishment of industry, small and medium businesses, we offer you the Mpumalanga Economic Empowerment Corporation
* For needs in the housing sector, the provincial government brings you the Mpumalanga Housing Finance Company
* And if you identify gaps in the agricultural sector, be they of a technical nature, technical advice, training or finance, we bring you the Mpumalanga Agricultural Development Corporation.

These, ladies and gentlemen, are but a sample of the services the provincial government has set aside to help deliver a better life for all in the province.

It remains your sole responsibility, as residents of these areas, to mobilise yourselves and do your own mapping of your assets and identification of limitations. As a government, we believe in a decentralised approach.

What I have outlined to you is a decentralised approach to poverty alleviation, via the decentralisation strategy, decision-makers at the provincial, district and local community levels are better able to develop and implement effective poverty fighting policies; programmes and strategies that respond to the needs voiced by yourselves as communities, by providing the required information. That, to me, is the core of value added by the economic forum vehicle.

With these few remarks, ladies and gentlemen, please, join me in officially launching the Gert Nsibande District Economic forum.

I now want the leadership to come and present itself to the people they must serve.

Let me congratulate the newly formed body of this forum and its members.

I also want to challenge them, as a committee, to work hard and continually bring to the attention of Mrs. Mdluli, your District Mayor; all district-wide opportunities ready to be seized in order to ultimately win this poverty war we are faced with.

Perseverance is what we need.

Remember, "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."

The struggle against poverty continues.

I thank you

Issued by Office of the Premier, Mpumalanga
23 January 2003