Address to the second Population Association of Southern Africa (Pasa) conference, by acting North West Premier, OJ Tselapedi, North West University, Mafikeng

Conference co-chairpersons
Doctor Mogege Mosimege, Vice-Rector
North West University Mafikeng Campus
Solly Bokaba, Acting Director-General
North West Provincial Government Office of the Premier
Councillor Mosa Sejosengwe
Mayor of Mafikeng
Professor Clifford Odimegwu, President, and the Leadership of the Population Association of Southern Africa
Professor D Kgwadi, Rector of the Mafikeng Campus of North West University
Statistician-General, Pali Lehohla
Professor Alan Hill, Scientific keynote Speaker of the day
Distinguished delegates to the second conference of the Population Association of Southern Africa

Your conference is an exercise in co-operative governance, bringing together your good selves as scientists, researchers and practitioners in the field of population studies on the one hand, and government officials on the other. In your chosen profession, your core business is the pursuit of new and appropriate knowledge which we in the service of the people in turn ought to take forward and apply for the advancement of society at large. Indeed, no Chinese Great Wall can exist between these two activities because one amounts to a natural fit on the other. That explains why some of your prominent members are at the same time officials in the service of the state.

I wish to congratulate you, therefore, at the very outset, for the preparatory work that has gone into the founding of the Pasa, as well as your preparations for this very second conference. The research, as represented in the form of the plenary and session presentations and deliberations, point to an organisation that takes its work seriously. I am personally looking forward to the resolutions and recommendations of the conference because it is government that is best placed to turn into reality your very noble aspirations for populations at large.

A cursory glance through your programme and abstracts of papers to be presented during the duration of this conference leaves one with the very real impression that your concern is of the total wellness of society. As a result, therefore, your concern is our concern.

In her opening of the provincial legislature earlier this year, Premier Edna Molewa reiterated the three pillars for the attainment of the 2014 vision set for and by the Third democratic Government of the Republic of South Africa, of which the North West Provincial Government is a highly active component, in the following terms:

* building a social security net to meet the objective of poverty alleviation
* promoting the growth and development of the first economy, thus increasing its possibility to create jobs and thus address the problem of unemployment
* adoption and implementation of interventions and programmes to address the challenges of the Second Economy.

Because democratic governance is about the people, it is no surprise that all three pillars are indeed relevant to your conference, which is, after all, about the population, hence the people.

The social security net which we are called upon to build is one that shall ensure that the vulnerability levels of the very poor are addressed as a matter of urgency. One of your papers talks to the critical matter of rural fertility in South Africa. The paper is making the observation, amongst others, that fertility in some of these rural communities may be declining. What the cause hereof is may well be a matter of conjecture at varying levels and degrees, but for those of us who are associated with government in one way or another; this raises some alarm bells already. Could it have to do with the rural poor not having access to basic services and facilities for the improvement of their lives? How can we make it a point that this does not persist, but gets arrested in its tracks?

The three pillars for the attainment of Vision 2014 confirm ours as a holistic approach to human development, in line with the prescripts of the United Nations and its agencies. As a distinguished actor on the international sphere, South Africa does not pay lip service to those resolutions and declarations of the United Nations that go to the core of population advancement, hence we are committed to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and are doing everything possible to mitigate risks that threaten to undermine realisation of this ideal.

Our Provincial Growth and Development Strategy is our own road map for the realisation of the major tasks of the Vision 2014 challenge. It advocates a number of targets, including those to do with:

* reducing unemployment to less than 20% by 2014
* pursuing targeted provincial economic growth of 6,6% per annum
* providing and facilitating skills development
* generating public and private investment
* ensuring co-operative governance and promote public/private partnerships
* promoting equal and fair access to opportunities and assets
* enhancing competitiveness and profitability
* ensuring sustainable development and poverty eradication through appropriate resource and environmental management.

Your conference theme, 'Population, Health and Development Challenges in Southern African Development Community (SADC),' goes to the heart of what we are about as a government. We are driven by the conviction of a society in which people live healthy and fulfilling lives, are capacitated to pursue learning and scholarly engagement without fear or favour, and engage in gainful employment for income generation. We abhor slavery and injustice, however subtly these may be couched. We are signatories to international conventions against these abhor able practices, including against child labour, and are proud to be taken to task each time breaches to these are discovered.

In our own small way, we are continuously rolling out processes and programmes towards a Poverty Alleviation Strategy. These include:

* facilitation of small business or co-operatives funding, market access and business linkages
* implementation of beneficiation programmes to create jobs
* promotion of community-based co-operatives as a form of ownership and job creation
* emphasis on skills development, especially in adults to equip our people with skills to access jobs and also run their enterprises
* centralised Integrated Nutrition Programme
* formalisation of institutional arrangements
* maintenance of a comprehensive social grant system
* provision of basic services, delivered through the country's Expanded Public Works Programme
* emphasis on community involvement, participation and awareness.

Some of the findings you have made through research, and some of the deliberations you are going to engage in, will not project us as governments within Southern African Development Community (SADC) in a particularly positive light. While the natural reaction may be for us to go on the defensive and seek to spin our ways out of some really honest and objective assessments, I hereby commit our provincial government to take to heart whatever judgment, however harsh and unflattering; you may arrive at with specific reference to the North West province. I say this because in at least three sessions you will have papers presented that would have taken into consideration our situation.

We encourage you to be brutally honest in your assessment of our approaches and initiatives because we stand to benefit from your proposed best practice approaches and responses to such pertinent subjects as fertility trends and transition, mortality and causes of death, especially amongst the youth, migration and development, non-marital child-bearing and adolescent pregnancy, and the impact of HIV and AIDS on the well-being of communities. As a democratic government, our abiding obsession is of us having the full backing of our people. This we can only be guaranteed if we prove ourselves compassionate enough to respond to what matters most to them.

Your conference has far-reaching implications. Your findings and resolutions will constitute very ideal recommendations for our consideration as various governments. Let nothing stand in the way of your resolve to influence positively and progressively the route the SADC region takes towards the development of the individual states' populations.

It now remains for me to formally welcome you to the North West province, and, with the power vested in me, declare the conference formally open. May it be everything you aspire it to be, and more?

I thank you all.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
26 September 2007