Date: 26/04/2004
Source: North West Provincial Government
Title: E Molewa: Swearing in of members of North West Provincial Legislature


SPEECH BY NORTH WEST PREMIER-ELECT, MS EDNA MOLEWA, ON THE OCCASION OF THE SWEARING-IN OF MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE, 26 April 2004

The Judge President
Colleagues in government
Representatives of the media
Ladies and Gentlemen

I accept with honour and humility the responsibility entrusted on me by the people of North West to lead the provincial government as we usher in the second decade of liberation in our country.

On this important day, I wish to make a solemn pledge that I will serve the people of the North West Province selflessly, with honour, dedication and commitment.

It is also my intention to carry forward the proud legacy my predecessor, Dr Popo Simon Molefe left behind.

Indeed, on this historic day, I wish to pay tribute to Dr Molefe for the work he has done to make ours a better province than it was at the time of our liberation in 1994.

As a result of the work done in the past ten years, we now have a firm basis upon which to embrace the future with confidence, confidence that acting together we will overcome collective challenges we face.

I wish also to take this opportunity to express my profound appreciation to the people of this province for displaying overwhelming confidence in the ANC-led government during our country's third democratic elections.

We are truly humbled by this unprecedented show of confidence from our people. We pledge that, as always, the ANC government will not let our people down.

We pledge to remain focused on the revolutionary task at hand, the task of building a better life for all.

As government we have heard what our people have said and it is our intention to continue finding appropriate responses to their needs, key among which is poverty and unemployment.

We accept that while massive strides have been made over the past ten years to improve quality of life of our people, a lot more still needs to be done.

Equally, we are aware that it will take collective action by all of us as South Africans to overcome challenges we face. It is for this reason that we pledge to continue working with our people towards the objective of building a people's contract.

We wish also to extend a hand of friendship to opposition parties to constructively engage with government as we all seek to reach our common objective of building a better province.

Throughout the length and breadth of our province our people are looking up to this government to continue the offensive on the legacy of our unhappy past. We must be united in our endeavour to build the province of our dreams, a province that is the envy of all in our country.

I wish also to take this opportunity to thank the Independent Electoral Commission and all political parties in our province for working together and co-operating towards the objective of ensuring that we have free and fair elections.

I have no doubt that it is this spirit of acting together and co-operating in the interest of all our people that will guide us through this critical stage in the history of our country, a stage where we must intensify the implementation of programmes aimed at lifting, from the shoulders of our people, the intolerable burden of poverty and underdevelopment.

Let us all fold our sleeves and work towards expanding access to a better life for all in our province.

I thank you.

Issued by: North West Provincial Government
26 April 2004