President Thabo Mbeki challenged South Africa's civil engineers on Thursday to help build the roads, buildings and monuments that will make the African renaissance a reality.

"It is only in this way that we will create the conditions that will enable us to banish the scourge of poverty and underdevelopment," he told a dinner Cape Town to mark the centenary of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE).

"The renaissance will not happen unless Africa builds, creating new edifices and usable structures that constitute our common commitment and prayer to the future".

Referring to the proposed Freedom Park monument to be build near Pretoria, the President said it could constitute a tribute of the civil engineers to the people of South Africa.

"When it is done, it should be like no other in the world".

After quoting from TS Elliot's 1922 poem "The Waste Land", Mbeki said Africa was, finally, slowly beginning "to pluck itself from Carthage", and its people now had every right to expect.

Many Africans were in need of durable roads and bridges, and millions were in need of clean water and the healthy environment that would come from proper sanitation.

"To respond to this challenge, we must see on our skyline everywhere, the builder's crane and hear everywhere the sound of the picks and shovels..." South Africans must, together, work to create the conditions to build for the future, he said.

"You, who must build the new Africa, should not cease to work because another has decided that their task is to shoot and kill.

"You, who must renew our continent, should not be loath to create because another sits across the valley ready to destroy".

Mbeki said one should not be daunted by the challenge of bringing peace to Africa, nor discouraged by the "reverses and failures that come from trying".

Gradually, the country was beginning to emerge from the old society, and breaking down the walls that kept people apart.

However, there were still people who were building walls and electrified fences to keep them separated from others "behind barricades of fear and hatred and loaded guns", he said. – Sapa.

President Thabo Mbeki challenged South Africa's civil engineers on Thursday to help build the roads, buildings and monuments that will make the African renaissance a reality.

"It is only in this way that we will create the conditions that will enable us to banish the scourge of poverty and underdevelopment," he told a dinner Cape Town to mark the centenary of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE).

"The renaissance will not happen unless Africa builds, creating new edifices and usable structures that constitute our common commitment and prayer to the future".

Referring to the proposed Freedom Park monument to be build near Pretoria, the President said it could constitute a tribute of the civil engineers to the people of South Africa.

"When it is done, it should be like no other in the world".

After quoting from TS Elliot's 1922 poem "The Waste Land", Mbeki said Africa was, finally, slowly beginning "to pluck itself from Carthage", and its people now had every right to expect.

Many Africans were in need of durable roads and bridges, and millions were in need of clean water and the healthy environment that would come from proper sanitation.

"To respond to this challenge, we must see on our skyline everywhere, the builder's crane and hear everywhere the sound of the picks and shovels..." South Africans must, together, work to create the conditions to build for the future, he said.

"You, who must build the new Africa, should not cease to work because another has decided that their task is to shoot and kill.

"You, who must renew our continent, should not be loath to create because another sits across the valley ready to destroy".

Mbeki said one should not be daunted by the challenge of bringing peace to Africa, nor discouraged by the "reverses and failures that come from trying".

Gradually, the country was beginning to emerge from the old society, and breaking down the walls that kept people apart.

However, there were still people who were building walls and electrified fences to keep them separated from others "behind barricades of fear and hatred and loaded guns", he said. – Sapa.