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Date : 12/11/2004
Source: Department of Public Works
Title: Sigcau: Black Business Quarterly Awards


South Africa’s Decade of victorious leadership, a Keynote Address by Minister of Public Works, Ms SN Sigcau, MP, during the awards hosted by The Black Business Quarterly, Sandton Convention Centre

The theme of this year’s awards ceremony, which you have asked me to address, is titled “South Africa’s decade of victorious leadership” and has two sub-themes to it.

The first theme involves an acknowledgement that South Africa has over the past ten years been deep in the trenches against the legacy of a very unfortunate past.

The second acknowledgement is that the effects of that apartheid legacy are now diminishing, not through miracle or luck, but as a direct consequence of the efforts of the country’s collective leadership over the past ten years.

In other words, we are as one that the past decade signifies victory against the odds.

The reason we are here today therefore, is to recognise some of those who in their daily interactions with their environment and its people, have contributed to the building of one nation, those whose efforts have contributed to the bettering of life in all corners of South Africa.

It is my great pleasure to be part of this important occasion.

In addressing you on this issue, I propose first yet briefly to talk about some of the challenges we faced when we took over in 1994.

I will also in the course of my speech outline some of the strategies we employed and the calibre of leadership we deployed, in the war against the apartheid legacies and other post liberation challenges.

Thirdly, I will give you an overview of how we are likely as a country to meet the challenges of the next decade.

Let me talk about the historical context.

Economic growth had declined in South Africa to below 1% per annum in the decade before 1994, and by the early 1990’s had come to a standstill. Public sector debt was ballooning out of control. The police and justice system violated most human and civil rights and was mainly used to defend apartheid and the South African Defence Force was fighting a low-intensity war against the liberation movement. Parts of the country lived under a state of war, assassinations and bombings of political opponents were rife.

Governance was largely defined by a national security doctrine with little respect for the rule of law. The apartheid state became more isolated, more corrupt and more dependent on extra-judicial measures to sustain it.

By the late 1980’s, the country was ungovernable, the social fabric torn apart by apartheid and social conflict.

Yet today, the state is a people-centred state, rallying behind the cry of Batho Pele, People First.

Over the past ten years the country has adopted one of the most advanced Constitutions in the world, thus creating the pendulum around which the transformation of this country is taking place. This was because, faced with a choice between ruining this country and saving it, the leadership of this country had the wisdom to choose the latter.

In hindsight it may look like a straightforward choice, but the scorched earth policies of many colonisers in Africa meant that at liberation, the newly liberated had to start from scratch ordering pins and pens before they could concentrate on the big issues such as rebuilding infrastructure.

Changing the past

The character of the post -94 state was contained in the policy developments first articulated in the Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP). The RDP had the following objectives:

* Meeting basic needs
* Building the economy
* Democratising the state and society
* Developing human resources, and
* Nation building

What a task. If I were to be anecdotal, I remember the culture shock I received. When I realised that the parastatals under Public Enterprises were like a Boys Club. Hence my coining of the word “Pale and Male” that just had to change. Some annoying letters were constantly being written in Afrikaans to which I sometimes replied to in Xhosa. Then there came the Saki, Gloria, Mafika error in Transnet and on one occasion when someone in a Parliamentary Committee said - except for Saki, who are these people? And another remark by a former MP Minister who said I had appointed a Committee instead of a Board – women of note like Dr Danisa Baloyi were part of the board. What a cheek! Human Resources Development became key, for we dared not put people in key positions without cushioning them with training. I could go on and on.

By reducing the interest we have to pay on debt, government policies have freed resources for social expenditure. Its is a known fact that the budget deficit has fallen from 9.5% in 1993 to 1% in 2002/3 while public sector debt has fallen from 60% to 50%.

Economic growth per capita, which in the decade before 1994 was negative, has changed to an average growth of 2.8% a year since then. With regard to employment, between 1995 and 2002, the number of people employed grew by 1.6 million from 9.6 million to 11.2 million.

As a result of government’s labour policy, there has been a dramatic fall in the number of days lost from strikes.

We are using Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment and programmes such as the Expanded Public Works Programme are part of the broader strategy to get our people at the centre of the economy through human resource development, skills and equity acquisition.

Following on the Minerals & Energy and Finance, we will by June next year launch the Property and Construction Charters which spell the sectors’ and government’s role in the transformation of our country. The charters involve not only ownership, but also human resource development to address the absence of black people in those sectors. As women we have taken deliberate stand to ensure women participation, examples being Women in Technology, Mining, Telecommunications, Agriculture, Construction, we are also diligently working towards having Women in Property.

CRIME

Some people say that crime is a deterrent to investment, but as government we have prioritised some of the more serious crimes in order to make an improvement in the lives of our people, by creating safer communities and work places.

It is heartening to note that according to the latest figures from the South African Police Services crime levels are stabilising or are coming down. Except for robbery and malicious damage to property, most of the 20 categories of serious crime have either stabilised or are decreasing compared to 1994. As an example, murder has decreased by 30.7%, almost 50% of robberies now relate to cell-phone theft or misplacement, with high reporting rates for insurance purposes.

High profile robberies (vehicle hijacking, hijacking of trucks, cash-in-transit robbery, and bank robbery) have come down significantly since they were first recorded in 1996. The integrated justice system has resulted in higher conviction rates, from 78% in 1999 to 81% in 2002.

Multilateral and regional role

On the regional front we have promoted integration through multi-lateral agencies such as SADC and NEPAD. Our president, Thabo Mbeki is playing an active role in Nepad, the African Union and UN peace initiatives.

Globally, President Mbeki has continued where former president Mandela left off. Since 2001 South Africa has worked to keep Africa and the South on the G8 agenda and engaged bodies such as the International Monetary Fund to promote a global financial system more favourable to developing countries.

We are working with other African states through the AU, SADC and UN to promote peace and good governance on the continent. Government is part of peace efforts in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia/Eritrea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and now the Cote d’Voire.

As a country our philosophy is that problems of the world are not gong to be resolved by single countries acting outside multilateral institutions, but by the nations of the world working together in tandem.

In this regard, to advance the interests of the developing countries we have worked hard to strengthen South-South collaboration while seeking to transform North-South relations. This we have done over the past decade by participating in groupings like the Non Aligned Movement and other structures.

What are the challenges for the next decade?

The first challenge is that our record of implementation shows that Government’s successes have often been where it has had significant control and less so where its influence has been indirect.

This is evident with improvement in areas under the control of government such as fiscal and monetary policy, trade and industrial policy we need to ensure that small business or issues around equity and Black Economic Empowerment also succeed.

We need to further ensure that both in the Private and Public Sectors there is investment and employment creation.

The second challenge is that while national security has improved, new forms of organized crime, insufficient civil society involvement in anti-crime measures slow us down significantly.

The third challenge is that over the next five years the world will be asked to balance the war against the scourge of terrorism on one hand and the creation of a truly sustainable world on the other. Some of the questions will be what ratio of human and financial resources should be directed towards the global war on terrorism relative to what we spend on starving children in the Third World.

There cannot be true peace in the world unless the fundamental rights of all have been recognised. We will have attained equality in South Africa once those who seek work do not wait forever in the queue but know that even if it takes some time, the prospect of getting a job in this country exists. Then we will be on our way to consolidating the gains of the past decade!

The fundamental objective of our policy is to attain a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. To attain these will naturally be the end state which most of us may not see in our lifetime. To get there we require the following:

* A framework defining a shared destiny, as a basis for social partnership;
* Better performance by the state;
* Addressing the consequences of the social transition and the deracialisation of the country
* Improving the Southern African environment and implementing NEPAD – An enclave approach to economic and political stability is not sustainable, only a regional approach to sustainable development will ensure that there we are not seen as the lamp that draws the insects.

Our calibre of leadership

Somebody once said that the innovative and creative leader in South Africa is the one who is transformational, not transactional. In other words they are not event oriented but plan for the long term. They embrace diversity, and learn how to lead in a great variety of cultural contexts.

As leaders in this country, at a political and business level, we have adopted a strong value base, a powerful vision and a rational management system. We are aware of the terrain and completely understand that there might be resistance to change.

Part of our change management strategy as a country is to acknowledge the past yet actively work to build one nation. One of the lessons for leadership in this country is being fostered by the Broad Based Economic Empowerment. It is forcing black and white to work together to create synergies which build collective across race and gender.

Innovation, a sense of destiny and not being afraid to be the first are some of the defining characteristics of the leadership of this country. When President Mbeki challenges the world’s multilateral institutions to recognise Africa and the Third World he is entering uncharted waters. But like all leaders of his ilk, he does not know the word failure and is not afraid to be the first to take the plunge into the unknown.

Prof Phinda Madi sees in the life story of King Shaka Zulu lessons in leadership which are relevant in the corporate world as they are in the rest of society. The Ten Lessons of leadership from King Shaka are the following:

1. Build a Sense of Mission
2. Mission is more important than convention
3. To be a conqueror, be apprenticed to a conqueror
4. Lead the charge (from the front)
5. Build a fanatical team
6. Go where angels fear to tread (Good old courage is still king)
7. Be a good strategist (or get one)
8. Know the battlefield (better than the enemy)
9. Be obsessed with world-class technologies
10. Don't believe your own PR

Our challenge for the future is that our success should be blended with the philosophy of lifting as you rise and that of ploughing back to the communities. Judging by the awards to be given, some of you are already walking that path. My plea would be that you walk tirelessly till our people can say, we have arrived – politically, socially and economically to count but a few. It’s a long road; however you must remember that there are people out there in the rural areas and locations.

Enjoy the evening and good luck to all the nominees.

I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Public Works
12 November 2004

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