Date: 25/11/2003
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Title: Mahlangu: Launch of Mpumalanga Parks Board logo, newsletter & website
ADDRESS BY PREMIER NJ MAHLANGU AT THE LAUNCH OF THE LOGO, NEWSLETTER AND WEBSITE OF THE MPUMALANGA PARKS BOARD, Nelspruit, Tuesday, 25 November 2003
Master of Ceremonies
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
In a few months time we will be celebrating a decade of freedom. Freedom from the evil system of apartheid and everything associated with it.
Nine years later we still feel the effects of some of these things. The effects of segregated areas, inferior education, being denied access to information and being banished to the most barren areas of this province and country are still with us.
Today we can largely say that we have travelled a long way on the road of creating a better life for all our people. Indeed the new Public Service has, like the rest of society, changed a lot over the nine years of its existence. I have noticed a difference between the Public Service that I now work with, and the Public Service that I worked with before 1994. I am glad that most of the changes that have occurred over that period of time have been beneficial changes.
Precisely because of this change, our people are now more demanding. They are more demanding of service, more demanding of explanation, more articulate and more persistent.
We have been working very hard at ensuring that the community has trust in the integrity and fairness of the Public Service and therefore in the process of government. As government our business is service delivery.
In everything we do we have to ensure that we create a significant impact on improving the lives of our people, especially people in the rural areas, women and girls and those people with disabilities.
I said to someone recently, serving our clients with compassion, with understanding, is not just the right thing to do. It is good for government, it is good for business, it is good for communities, and it is good for all the people of the province and the country. After all, all government employees subscribe to the BATHO PELE principles.
All our citizens should have equal access to the services to which you are entitled. We are committed to openness. Administration must be an open book. Our people have the right to know. Departmental staff numbers, particulars of senior officials, expenditure and performance against standards must no longer be secret. Reports to citizens must be widely published and submitted to legislatures. Our people must get full, accurate and up-to-date facts about services they are entitled to. Information should be provided at service points and in local media and languages.
That is why I am glad today to be part of the launch of tools that will ensure that the people in the province get the information they need in order to make informed decisions. And I am equally excited that we will be using the printed and the electronic medium to reach our people.
There is no denying that the digital revolution, developments in telecommunications and the Internet are having a profound effect on society. The globalisation of and the ability by societies and communities to network has led to increasing levels of interdependence among the people of the world. The emerging networked society and economy are opening many opportunities for millions of people around the world.
Increased trade, new technologies, foreign investments, expanding media and Internet connections are fuelling economic growth and human advance. These developments offer great potential to accelerate development and to eradicate the scourge of poverty that continues to afflict huge numbers of the world's population, especially in the developing countries.
These same developments however have the potential to become the greatest force for widening the gap between the rich and the poor, the developed and the developing countries. It can become a force for social and economic marginalisation and, even exclusion.
One of the issues President Thabo Mbeki called upon us to do is to ensure that we strengthen our links with the masses of our people on a sustained and not a sporadic basis. This will enable us to increase our understanding of the feelings, desires and aspirations of these masses.
It will also help us to carry out our leadership role better and in manner that is responsive to the needs of our people. Doing so will enable us to ensure that the masses of our people are mobilised to engage in active struggle and do not become passive recipients of the positive results of the process of progressive change.
This must be done in such a way that we realise one of the fundamental goal of our strategy and tactics of ensuring that our process of transformation is people-driven. The masses of our people must continue to be the principal motive force of revolutionary change.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe the Mpumalanga Parks Board website will go some way in keeping us in touch with the people. We believe that it is the responsibility of government to communicate to the South African population, and indeed to the rest of the world, on a continual and on an accurate basis.
It is important because we do indeed sincerely believe that when we talk about a democratic system in South Africa, which is responsive to the feelings, the ideas, the moods, the needs and so on of the people, it is important that the people should know what government is doing.
We believe that the launching of this website and newsletter is very much part of a process of ensuring the accessibility of government to the people. The Constitution itself gives the people the right to information.
Many people around the world are continuously interested to know what is happening in our province. Sometimes the spotlight focuses on areas that are somewhat painful and embarrassing for us as a province, and maybe you wish that people would not know what was happening. But in the end it is important that the rest of the country and the world should get accurate information of what is happening.
That is more the reason why we should approach the website critically amongst those people who want to use it. To see whether indeed it is user friendly, to see whether it indeed contains this breadth and extent of information, which is necessary for people to be able to format judgement, to be able to make an impact on the system of governance in the country.
It is also important that the people who use the site give us feedback on it. Is our website user-friendly? They must suggest ways of improving our site. By being able to surf our site people in Mpumalanga will be able to find out the truth about our government and our departments.
As we know the driving force behind the networked society and economy is the astonishing development of the last decade or so is the information and communications technologies. The information and communications revolution offers ever more powerful and enhanced capabilities, affecting and transforming patterns of work, education and health delivery, entertainment, public opinion and so on.
But this revolution is different from the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Although both the agricultural and industrial revolutions involved new knowledge, in both instances different inputs were critical. Land was for the agrarian revolution more important than the new knowledge on the use of seeds.
For the industrial revolution capital in the form of machines encompassing the use of energy through the steam engine and the internal combustion engine, became the most important input of production. Similarly the current revolution is driven by the discovery of electronic means of processing, organising, sorting and communicating information, which is leading to a knowledge revolution.
But knowledge unlike land or capital resides mostly in human brains rather than physical entities. Information and communications technologies provide the medium through which humanity both generates and communicates knowledge. By know you must be wondering when I am going to use that word you like most: in conclusion.
Well, in conclusion, thank you very much indeed for these wonderful tools. Let me thank the department of Agriculture and the Parks Board for their sterling efforts in bringing government closer to the people.
I hope you will work harder in establishing community centres and telecentres around the province so that even in rural areas people have access to this modem technology.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that you did not come merely for the food and the drinks. You are here because you are part of the process of launching what must become an important tool in the process of entrenching the system of democratic governance in this country, of entrenching this popular participation in the system of government.
Thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Mpumalanga Provincial Government
25 November 2003
Source: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
Title: Mahlangu: Launch of Mpumalanga Parks Board logo, newsletter & website
ADDRESS BY PREMIER NJ MAHLANGU AT THE LAUNCH OF THE LOGO, NEWSLETTER AND WEBSITE OF THE MPUMALANGA PARKS BOARD, Nelspruit, Tuesday, 25 November 2003
Master of Ceremonies
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
In a few months time we will be celebrating a decade of freedom. Freedom from the evil system of apartheid and everything associated with it.
Nine years later we still feel the effects of some of these things. The effects of segregated areas, inferior education, being denied access to information and being banished to the most barren areas of this province and country are still with us.
Today we can largely say that we have travelled a long way on the road of creating a better life for all our people. Indeed the new Public Service has, like the rest of society, changed a lot over the nine years of its existence. I have noticed a difference between the Public Service that I now work with, and the Public Service that I worked with before 1994. I am glad that most of the changes that have occurred over that period of time have been beneficial changes.
Precisely because of this change, our people are now more demanding. They are more demanding of service, more demanding of explanation, more articulate and more persistent.
We have been working very hard at ensuring that the community has trust in the integrity and fairness of the Public Service and therefore in the process of government. As government our business is service delivery.
In everything we do we have to ensure that we create a significant impact on improving the lives of our people, especially people in the rural areas, women and girls and those people with disabilities.
I said to someone recently, serving our clients with compassion, with understanding, is not just the right thing to do. It is good for government, it is good for business, it is good for communities, and it is good for all the people of the province and the country. After all, all government employees subscribe to the BATHO PELE principles.
All our citizens should have equal access to the services to which you are entitled. We are committed to openness. Administration must be an open book. Our people have the right to know. Departmental staff numbers, particulars of senior officials, expenditure and performance against standards must no longer be secret. Reports to citizens must be widely published and submitted to legislatures. Our people must get full, accurate and up-to-date facts about services they are entitled to. Information should be provided at service points and in local media and languages.
That is why I am glad today to be part of the launch of tools that will ensure that the people in the province get the information they need in order to make informed decisions. And I am equally excited that we will be using the printed and the electronic medium to reach our people.
There is no denying that the digital revolution, developments in telecommunications and the Internet are having a profound effect on society. The globalisation of and the ability by societies and communities to network has led to increasing levels of interdependence among the people of the world. The emerging networked society and economy are opening many opportunities for millions of people around the world.
Increased trade, new technologies, foreign investments, expanding media and Internet connections are fuelling economic growth and human advance. These developments offer great potential to accelerate development and to eradicate the scourge of poverty that continues to afflict huge numbers of the world's population, especially in the developing countries.
These same developments however have the potential to become the greatest force for widening the gap between the rich and the poor, the developed and the developing countries. It can become a force for social and economic marginalisation and, even exclusion.
One of the issues President Thabo Mbeki called upon us to do is to ensure that we strengthen our links with the masses of our people on a sustained and not a sporadic basis. This will enable us to increase our understanding of the feelings, desires and aspirations of these masses.
It will also help us to carry out our leadership role better and in manner that is responsive to the needs of our people. Doing so will enable us to ensure that the masses of our people are mobilised to engage in active struggle and do not become passive recipients of the positive results of the process of progressive change.
This must be done in such a way that we realise one of the fundamental goal of our strategy and tactics of ensuring that our process of transformation is people-driven. The masses of our people must continue to be the principal motive force of revolutionary change.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe the Mpumalanga Parks Board website will go some way in keeping us in touch with the people. We believe that it is the responsibility of government to communicate to the South African population, and indeed to the rest of the world, on a continual and on an accurate basis.
It is important because we do indeed sincerely believe that when we talk about a democratic system in South Africa, which is responsive to the feelings, the ideas, the moods, the needs and so on of the people, it is important that the people should know what government is doing.
We believe that the launching of this website and newsletter is very much part of a process of ensuring the accessibility of government to the people. The Constitution itself gives the people the right to information.
Many people around the world are continuously interested to know what is happening in our province. Sometimes the spotlight focuses on areas that are somewhat painful and embarrassing for us as a province, and maybe you wish that people would not know what was happening. But in the end it is important that the rest of the country and the world should get accurate information of what is happening.
That is more the reason why we should approach the website critically amongst those people who want to use it. To see whether indeed it is user friendly, to see whether it indeed contains this breadth and extent of information, which is necessary for people to be able to format judgement, to be able to make an impact on the system of governance in the country.
It is also important that the people who use the site give us feedback on it. Is our website user-friendly? They must suggest ways of improving our site. By being able to surf our site people in Mpumalanga will be able to find out the truth about our government and our departments.
As we know the driving force behind the networked society and economy is the astonishing development of the last decade or so is the information and communications technologies. The information and communications revolution offers ever more powerful and enhanced capabilities, affecting and transforming patterns of work, education and health delivery, entertainment, public opinion and so on.
But this revolution is different from the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Although both the agricultural and industrial revolutions involved new knowledge, in both instances different inputs were critical. Land was for the agrarian revolution more important than the new knowledge on the use of seeds.
For the industrial revolution capital in the form of machines encompassing the use of energy through the steam engine and the internal combustion engine, became the most important input of production. Similarly the current revolution is driven by the discovery of electronic means of processing, organising, sorting and communicating information, which is leading to a knowledge revolution.
But knowledge unlike land or capital resides mostly in human brains rather than physical entities. Information and communications technologies provide the medium through which humanity both generates and communicates knowledge. By know you must be wondering when I am going to use that word you like most: in conclusion.
Well, in conclusion, thank you very much indeed for these wonderful tools. Let me thank the department of Agriculture and the Parks Board for their sterling efforts in bringing government closer to the people.
I hope you will work harder in establishing community centres and telecentres around the province so that even in rural areas people have access to this modem technology.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that you did not come merely for the food and the drinks. You are here because you are part of the process of launching what must become an important tool in the process of entrenching the system of democratic governance in this country, of entrenching this popular participation in the system of government.
Thank you.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Mpumalanga Provincial Government
25 November 2003
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