Date: 07/08/2003
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: Shilowa: Meeting with religious leaders
SPEECH BY GAUTENG PREMIER MBHAZIMA SHILOWA AT THE MEETING WITH RELIGIOUS LEADERS, Pyramid Conference Centre, Johannesburg, 7 August 2003
MECs
Esteemed Religious Leaders
Distinguished Guests
Two years ago we met at this centre and laid a solid foundation on which closer co-operation and collaboration between government and the communities of faith would be built.
At that meeting, on 17 July 2001, we shared views on a range of challenges that faced our province and looked at what we could do together as government and communities of faith to overcome them.
Our decision to continuously engage with you, as leaders of communities of faith, stems from our firm belief that you have an important role to play in the unfolding process of reconstruction and development and nation building.
The communities of faith played a significant role in the struggle to free the people of South Africa from social and economic bondage and in charting a way to a better South Africa for all.
All of you have been involved in formulating the policies and programmes that we have been implementing since 1994. You have also been involved in the evaluation of these policies and programmes, to see how they impacted on the lives of millions of South Africans, especially the poorest of the poor.
We speak to you about our work because we know very well that you share the same objectives with us. When you raise concerns about our work you do so because you want us to succeed in improving the lives of our people.
We are in this work together as partners who want to see fundamental change that will see all South Africans leading a better quality of life.
We have come a long way since 1994, when we set out to transform our country into a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society. There were obstacles along our path in the initial stages of our march to a better South Africa. But our resolve to succeed saw us through those obstacles. We have made good progress in the past few years which resulted in a significant improvement in the lives of our people.
We approach the end of the first decade of freedom and democracy confident that, through our hard work, our country has moved out of the dark days and is now firmly on the way to prosperity.
Last year we released the mid-term report of the Gauteng Provincial Government. The report communicates in more detail our achievements of the past nine years. But when we released the report there were people who dismissed it as government propaganda.
The millions of our people who have seen an improvement in their lives as a result of our policies and programmes came to our defence. They did so because they are touched by our programmes on a daily basis. Those who spent decades living in slums now live in decent homes on land that they own. Those who did not have access to health care now have it near where they live. Those who were severely affected by poverty now receive help through social security grants and a wide range of other government programmes.
There is no need for me to preach to you because you are aware of the many things that we are doing as government which have improved the lives of the poorest of our people. I know that when it comes to preaching I cannot outperform you.
Our efforts to communicate our achievements have now been made even easier with the release of the 2001 Census results. The census, whose accuracy nobody can question, confirms that we have indeed made great progress towards our strategic goal of creating a better life for all.
In addition, the census results provide a more reliable basis for us to plan how to make further advances towards our goal and overcome the challenges that continue to face us, including new ones that have emerged after freedom.
I assume that you have already studied the census results and you will have seen some of the figures which confirm the appropriateness of the strategies that we have employed to address the challenges that face our province.
The census results tell us that 33% of households in our province live in informal settlements or backyards. The results also confirm that we have a huge housing backlog in our province. This backlog can be attributed to a number of factors including migration, natural population growth and the decrease in the size of households. Despite this backlog our record shows that we are making steady progress in solving the problem of homelessness.
When we met in 2001 we spoke at length about the challenge of homelessness and what we are doing to overcome it. We are convinced that while it might take some time for us to drastically reduce the backlog, working together with business, workers, and communities we will succeed.
Apart from homelessness we still have the challenges of fighting poverty, unemployment, combating diseases including HIV/AIDS, moral regeneration and reconciliation and nation building.
We are aware of the things that all of you are doing in your institutions and congregations towards addressing these challenges. There is valuable experience that can be drawn from your work and applied to what we are doing.
The faith community has also participated in a number of campaigns that we had initiated as government.
It is our firm belief that collaboration and co-operation between government and the communities of faith can see us overcome all these challenges.
We would like to see more co-operation and collaboration between the Gauteng Provincial Government and the community of faith in our province.
In today's meeting we must spend some time discussing how we can co-operate on the following issues:
Poverty alleviation
* identifying beneficiaries and helping them to access social services;
* identifying poverty pockets in the province;
* implementing programmes such as food gardens, food parcels and community development centres;
Conflict resolution and crime prevention
* creating a culture of teaching and learning in schools, safer schools programmes;
* working with local police stations to support community police forums;
Service Delivery
* disseminating information on government services and help people to access such services;
* identifying blockages in service delivery;
Education and awareness raising
* Partnering with the Education Department in respect of religious education and values in education;
* HIV/AIDS partnership;
* Active parenting and life skills;
Last year we launched the Moral Regeneration Movement at national level to address issues of morality.
In Gauteng we have formed a provincial working committee and a secretariat, which is presently being co-ordinated in the Office of the Premier. Key civil society sectors including religious groups, labour, youth and women are involved in the provincial working committee.
As government we are prepared to host the provincial launch of the MRM. The launch should reflect the coming together of a number of sectors in a united front for moral regeneration. We hope that at the launch each sector should pledge their commitment to a series of concrete actions to address moral degradation.
Work on the first phase of the Freedom Park in Pretoria is gathering steam. As part of this process, provinces have been requested to undertake symbolic events to promote reconciliation, healing and cleansing, culminating in a national event on 16 December 2003 - the Day of National Reconciliation.
In our province we would like this initiative to be localised. Each community has fallen heroes, sites of struggle, sites where the apartheid security forces may have attacked members of the community.
We would like to partner with the religious sector and local community organisations to arrange events such as the renaming of streets and commemoration services in the week leading to 16 December 2003.
However, we need to make it clear that reconciliation and healing is a process, which will not be completed by merely organising symbolic events. More work will have to be done to ensure that we complete this process.
There are other things that we may not have mentioned around which we can build our partnership to ensure that we hasten our advance towards a better South Africa for all.
The foundation has been laid. Let us get on with the building process. Together we can build a better South Africa where all citizens lead a better life.
For enquiries contact Thabo Masebe at 082 410 8087
Issued by Gauteng Provincial Government
7 August 2003
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
Title: Shilowa: Meeting with religious leaders
SPEECH BY GAUTENG PREMIER MBHAZIMA SHILOWA AT THE MEETING WITH RELIGIOUS LEADERS, Pyramid Conference Centre, Johannesburg, 7 August 2003
MECs
Esteemed Religious Leaders
Distinguished Guests
Two years ago we met at this centre and laid a solid foundation on which closer co-operation and collaboration between government and the communities of faith would be built.
At that meeting, on 17 July 2001, we shared views on a range of challenges that faced our province and looked at what we could do together as government and communities of faith to overcome them.
Our decision to continuously engage with you, as leaders of communities of faith, stems from our firm belief that you have an important role to play in the unfolding process of reconstruction and development and nation building.
The communities of faith played a significant role in the struggle to free the people of South Africa from social and economic bondage and in charting a way to a better South Africa for all.
All of you have been involved in formulating the policies and programmes that we have been implementing since 1994. You have also been involved in the evaluation of these policies and programmes, to see how they impacted on the lives of millions of South Africans, especially the poorest of the poor.
We speak to you about our work because we know very well that you share the same objectives with us. When you raise concerns about our work you do so because you want us to succeed in improving the lives of our people.
We are in this work together as partners who want to see fundamental change that will see all South Africans leading a better quality of life.
We have come a long way since 1994, when we set out to transform our country into a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society. There were obstacles along our path in the initial stages of our march to a better South Africa. But our resolve to succeed saw us through those obstacles. We have made good progress in the past few years which resulted in a significant improvement in the lives of our people.
We approach the end of the first decade of freedom and democracy confident that, through our hard work, our country has moved out of the dark days and is now firmly on the way to prosperity.
Last year we released the mid-term report of the Gauteng Provincial Government. The report communicates in more detail our achievements of the past nine years. But when we released the report there were people who dismissed it as government propaganda.
The millions of our people who have seen an improvement in their lives as a result of our policies and programmes came to our defence. They did so because they are touched by our programmes on a daily basis. Those who spent decades living in slums now live in decent homes on land that they own. Those who did not have access to health care now have it near where they live. Those who were severely affected by poverty now receive help through social security grants and a wide range of other government programmes.
There is no need for me to preach to you because you are aware of the many things that we are doing as government which have improved the lives of the poorest of our people. I know that when it comes to preaching I cannot outperform you.
Our efforts to communicate our achievements have now been made even easier with the release of the 2001 Census results. The census, whose accuracy nobody can question, confirms that we have indeed made great progress towards our strategic goal of creating a better life for all.
In addition, the census results provide a more reliable basis for us to plan how to make further advances towards our goal and overcome the challenges that continue to face us, including new ones that have emerged after freedom.
I assume that you have already studied the census results and you will have seen some of the figures which confirm the appropriateness of the strategies that we have employed to address the challenges that face our province.
The census results tell us that 33% of households in our province live in informal settlements or backyards. The results also confirm that we have a huge housing backlog in our province. This backlog can be attributed to a number of factors including migration, natural population growth and the decrease in the size of households. Despite this backlog our record shows that we are making steady progress in solving the problem of homelessness.
When we met in 2001 we spoke at length about the challenge of homelessness and what we are doing to overcome it. We are convinced that while it might take some time for us to drastically reduce the backlog, working together with business, workers, and communities we will succeed.
Apart from homelessness we still have the challenges of fighting poverty, unemployment, combating diseases including HIV/AIDS, moral regeneration and reconciliation and nation building.
We are aware of the things that all of you are doing in your institutions and congregations towards addressing these challenges. There is valuable experience that can be drawn from your work and applied to what we are doing.
The faith community has also participated in a number of campaigns that we had initiated as government.
It is our firm belief that collaboration and co-operation between government and the communities of faith can see us overcome all these challenges.
We would like to see more co-operation and collaboration between the Gauteng Provincial Government and the community of faith in our province.
In today's meeting we must spend some time discussing how we can co-operate on the following issues:
Poverty alleviation
* identifying beneficiaries and helping them to access social services;
* identifying poverty pockets in the province;
* implementing programmes such as food gardens, food parcels and community development centres;
Conflict resolution and crime prevention
* creating a culture of teaching and learning in schools, safer schools programmes;
* working with local police stations to support community police forums;
Service Delivery
* disseminating information on government services and help people to access such services;
* identifying blockages in service delivery;
Education and awareness raising
* Partnering with the Education Department in respect of religious education and values in education;
* HIV/AIDS partnership;
* Active parenting and life skills;
Last year we launched the Moral Regeneration Movement at national level to address issues of morality.
In Gauteng we have formed a provincial working committee and a secretariat, which is presently being co-ordinated in the Office of the Premier. Key civil society sectors including religious groups, labour, youth and women are involved in the provincial working committee.
As government we are prepared to host the provincial launch of the MRM. The launch should reflect the coming together of a number of sectors in a united front for moral regeneration. We hope that at the launch each sector should pledge their commitment to a series of concrete actions to address moral degradation.
Work on the first phase of the Freedom Park in Pretoria is gathering steam. As part of this process, provinces have been requested to undertake symbolic events to promote reconciliation, healing and cleansing, culminating in a national event on 16 December 2003 - the Day of National Reconciliation.
In our province we would like this initiative to be localised. Each community has fallen heroes, sites of struggle, sites where the apartheid security forces may have attacked members of the community.
We would like to partner with the religious sector and local community organisations to arrange events such as the renaming of streets and commemoration services in the week leading to 16 December 2003.
However, we need to make it clear that reconciliation and healing is a process, which will not be completed by merely organising symbolic events. More work will have to be done to ensure that we complete this process.
There are other things that we may not have mentioned around which we can build our partnership to ensure that we hasten our advance towards a better South Africa for all.
The foundation has been laid. Let us get on with the building process. Together we can build a better South Africa where all citizens lead a better life.
For enquiries contact Thabo Masebe at 082 410 8087
Issued by Gauteng Provincial Government
7 August 2003
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